Archivio Conz

Ken Friedman (b. 1949 in New London, Connecticut, USA, lives and works in Kalmar, Sweden) is a design researcher and artist associated with Fluxus. From 1966 onwards he was involved by George Maciunas in numerous collaborations with Fluxus, eventually becoming head of Fluxus West and General Manager of Dick Higgins’s Something Else Press in the early 1970s. Conceived as one of the four branches of the Fluxus organizational structure envisioned by Maciunas, Fluxus West, directed by Friedman, linked together artists from the western United States and soon became a prolific and emblematic reality. In 1967, Friedman purchased a Volkswagen bus later named Fluxmobile, with which Fluxus West began touring across the United States, giving lectures, performing concerts, and disseminating leaflets. Friedman founded the international Fluxshoe, a travelling exhibition active for a whole year between 1969 and 1970. Many artists participated with spontaneous performances and graphic works mailed to Friedman. Friedman’s scores, correspondence, and papers are preserved in major museums worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.