On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of what is regarded as the birth of Fluxus – sixty years after the International Festival of Newest Music in Wiesbaden in 1962 – the Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden celebrated with the opening of FLUXUS SEX TIES / Hier Spielt die Musik! featuring pianos from the Archivio Conz collection.
In celebration of the 1962 Wiesbaden concert which culminated in the irreverent destruction of a grand piano, Kunstverein Wiebaden exhibited pianos, grand pianos and cellos from Archivio Conz. These are pianos made by female artists of FLUXUS, including Sari Dienes, Esther Ferrer, Dorothy Iannone, Alison Knowles, Charlotte Moorman, Ann Noël, Takako Saito and Carolee Schneemann, transforming the exhibition into a visual body of sound. While literature on Fluxus emphasises equal presence of female artists, sixty years of exhibition history nevertheless proves that they have largely been overlooked. The exhibition and research project FLUXUS SEX TIES / Hier spielt die Musik! gives voice to these female Fluxus artists in the shape of a participatory spatial installation, presenting a wide artistic kaleidoscope.
The opening on July 14 inaugurated the Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden's long-term program honoring the legacy of the female artists of Fluxus, marked with a performance by the inimitable Takako Saito.