Henar Rivière is a Postdoctoral fellow at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and Research and Project Manager at Archivo Lafuente, Santander (Spain). She was a postdoctoral fellow Juan de la Cierva at UCLM (Spain) in 2018-20. In previous years she was awarded postdoctoral and postgraduate scholarships and grants by The J. Paul Getty Trust (Los Angeles, USA) and the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), among others. She is a member of research groups ARTEA, TRAMA and Global Art Archive (GAA). As independent curator she has worked with institutions such as MUSAC (León), CAAC (Sevilla), Galerie Krinzinger (Vienna) or Kunstverein Wolfenbüttel (Germany) among other. She received a PhD "Summa cum laude” in Art History from UCM in 2015. She is a scholar of Fluxus, Zaj and Intermedia Art, with a special focus on action music, experimental writing, mail art and artist's networks.
A major European exhibition in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Fluxus. Akademie der Ku... more A major European exhibition in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Fluxus. Akademie der Kunste, Hanseatenweg, Berlin, 13 July - 12 August 2012 University of Arts in Poznan, 9 - 28 October 2012 MOCAK museum of contemporary art, Krakow , 19 October - 28 January 2013 Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, 2 November - 22 December 2012 CAC Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, 23 November 2012 - 13 January 2013 Goethe-Institut Paris, 5 December 2012 - 10 January 2013 [Heike Roms: Co-curator. Member of Board of Art Historians]
Coordenadas culturales en la museología del presente: cinco neologismos., 2023
Global contemporary art museums’ archival turn has recently been affirmed in Spain by the Museo N... more Global contemporary art museums’ archival turn has recently been affirmed in Spain by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía’s acquisition of the Santander-based Archivo Lafuente. This article examines the role played in this archival turn by the expanded arts, which, since the 1960s, has been instrumental in redefining the function of art. It has altered, among other things, the terms of the relationship between artwork and document, as well as, consequently, the very nature of the institutions devoted to both, i.e., the museum and the archive. To this end, the notion of an ‘active archive’ is revisited—a concept that links the artistic practices of two key figures in intermedia art and the international mail art network: György Galántai (Budapest) and Ulises Carrión (Amsterdam). Their archives were underground artist-run initiatives, now respectively housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, and in the aforementioned Archivo Lafuente in Santander.
Arte Y Parte Revista De Arte Espana Portugal Y America, 2014
La revista explora y experimenta el concepto decollage creado por Vostell, esto es: la construcci... more La revista explora y experimenta el concepto decollage creado por Vostell, esto es: la construccion de un nuevo significado a traves de la destruccion, fragmentacion o desplazamientos de un significado original. Con espeicla interes en el fluxus y los happenings, publica documentos, proyectos y colaboraciones de artistas como George Brecht, Claes Oldenburg, Al Hansen, George Maciunas, La Monte Young, Stanley Brouwn, Charlotte Moorman, Jean Tinguely y el propio Vostell.
El relato sobre el nacimiento de la red de artistas Fluxus en Alemania en 1962 se situa en un ter... more El relato sobre el nacimiento de la red de artistas Fluxus en Alemania en 1962 se situa en un territorio intermedio entre la historia y la leyenda. Como pionero del Arte de Accion, Fluxus desarrollo una practica artistica efimera que priva a la historiografia del arte de su objeto habitual de estudio (la obra de arte en el sentido material del termino), confrontandola con la ausencia de lo sucedido. Entre los acontecimientos y su rastro documental se abre un vacio; vacio que los artistas de Fluxus supieron llenar con sus voces, ecos multiples de lo legendario. Esta tesis doctoral parte de la identificacion y analisis de lo que la autora denomina el mito (a)fundacional de Fluxus, evidenciando las estrategias de posicionamiento que esconde y las preguntas de indole historiografica que plantea. Dichas preguntas se abordan a traves de un cotejo del mito con la realidad, efectuado en torno a tres ejes fundamentales: los eventos inaugurales de Fluxus, que se reconstruyen con la mayor prec...
Este seminario quiere pensar aquellas prácticas artísticas que indagan entre las fuerzas de la es... more Este seminario quiere pensar aquellas prácticas artísticas que indagan entre las fuerzas de la escritura y la abstracción pictórica desde sus fundamentos estéticos. A partir de la “escritura experimental” desarrollada en las décadas de eclosión del arte Intermedia (1950-1970) en Europa y América, la propuesta se centra en obras que mantienen una tensión irresoluble entre el lenguaje y la representación, poniendo el acento en la corporalidad de la escritura
El archivo es siempre una vuelta a empezar. Es ese lugar, centralizado o disperso, al que las inv... more El archivo es siempre una vuelta a empezar. Es ese lugar, centralizado o disperso, al que las investigadoras y los investigadores vuelven para reescribir las historias del arte, reformular sus preguntas y reinventar sus enfoques. Es también esa figura de pensamiento que tantas y tantos artistas contemporáneos hacen y deshacen con su trabajo.
Although the Fluxus art (non-)movement is often read as a historical phenomenon, the breadth of i... more Although the Fluxus art (non-)movement is often read as a historical phenomenon, the breadth of its innovations and complexities actively thwarts linear and circumscribed viewpoints. The notion of Fluxus incorporates contradiction in challenging and enduringly generative ways. More than five decades after its emergence, this special issue of OnCurating entitled Fluxus Perspectives seeks to re-examine the influence, roles, and effects of Fluxus via a wide range of scholarly perspectives. The editors asked notable writers from different locations, generations, and viewpoints, all of whom having written about Fluxus before, to offer their thoughts on its significance, particularly in relation to contemporary artmaking and strategies of curating today.
Edited by Martin Patrick and Dorothee Richter
Contributions by Simon Anderson, Jordan Carter, Kevin Concannon, Ken Friedman, Natilee Harren, John Held, Jr., Hannah B Higgins, Hanna B. Hölling, Natasha Lushetich, Billie Maciunas, Peter van der Meijden, Ann Noël, Martin Patrick, Dorothee Richter, Henar Rivière, Julia Robinson, Owen F. Smith, Weronika Trojanska, Emmett Williams
Unpaged. How to Revisit History from a Plural Perspective?, 2021
"Henar Rivière’s case study deals with a work by Argentine artist Graciela Gutiérrez Marx entitle... more "Henar Rivière’s case study deals with a work by Argentine artist Graciela Gutiérrez Marx entitled "Grupo de familia. Reconstrucción de un mito / Family Group. Assembling a Myth", later renamed "Los códices marginales de Mamablanca / The Marginal Codices of Mamablanca" realized in different stages between 1980 and 1981. Her focus is on Gutiérrez Marx’s ethical and aesthetic universe, the artist’s theoretical thinking, which revolved around the concept of "arte íntimo" (inmost art) offering a revealing insight into the notion of art and the archive as process. Rivière analyses the key term “marginalisation” rooted in modesty aimed at opposing resistance leading to the existential and geopolitical dimensions of Gutiérrez Marx's theory and practice of inmost art. "Family Group" is an example of a profound sense of community, which is held together in a form of communication based on listening, by means of which she introduces stimulating alternatives to the common understanding of mail art networking" (Alina Șerban and Daniel Grúň)
Escuchar con los ojos. Arte sonoro en España, 1961-2016
Este libro-catálogo y los contenidos sonoros, textuales y visuales que lo complementan [de acceso... more Este libro-catálogo y los contenidos sonoros, textuales y visuales que lo complementan [de acceso libre en www.march.es] se publican con motivo de la exposición "Escuchar con los ojos. Arte sonoro en España, 1961-2016", Fundación Juan March.
Un ambito muy fertil para el desarrollo de la escritura experimental – recogida en la exposicion ... more Un ambito muy fertil para el desarrollo de la escritura experimental – recogida en la exposicion Escritura experimental en Espana 1963-1983 que el CBA programo en 2014- fue el del arte postal, en cuya practica destaco el escritor Jose Luis Castillejo durante su periodo Caj. Embajador de profesion y coleccionista de arte, Castillejo, representado en la exposicion mencionada, se inicio en el mundo de la escritura experimental a partir de su contacto con este grupo pionero del arte de accion, a el se debe uno de los capitulos mas interesantes a nivel internacional del arte postal.
Mirando a Clio El Arte Espanol Espejo De Su Historia Actas Del Xviii Congreso Del Ceha Santiago De Compostela 20 24 De Septiembre De 2010 2012 Isbn 978 84 9887 840 0, 2012
A major European exhibition in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Fluxus. Akademie der Ku... more A major European exhibition in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Fluxus. Akademie der Kunste, Hanseatenweg, Berlin, 13 July - 12 August 2012 University of Arts in Poznan, 9 - 28 October 2012 MOCAK museum of contemporary art, Krakow , 19 October - 28 January 2013 Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, 2 November - 22 December 2012 CAC Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, 23 November 2012 - 13 January 2013 Goethe-Institut Paris, 5 December 2012 - 10 January 2013 [Heike Roms: Co-curator. Member of Board of Art Historians]
Coordenadas culturales en la museología del presente: cinco neologismos., 2023
Global contemporary art museums’ archival turn has recently been affirmed in Spain by the Museo N... more Global contemporary art museums’ archival turn has recently been affirmed in Spain by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía’s acquisition of the Santander-based Archivo Lafuente. This article examines the role played in this archival turn by the expanded arts, which, since the 1960s, has been instrumental in redefining the function of art. It has altered, among other things, the terms of the relationship between artwork and document, as well as, consequently, the very nature of the institutions devoted to both, i.e., the museum and the archive. To this end, the notion of an ‘active archive’ is revisited—a concept that links the artistic practices of two key figures in intermedia art and the international mail art network: György Galántai (Budapest) and Ulises Carrión (Amsterdam). Their archives were underground artist-run initiatives, now respectively housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, and in the aforementioned Archivo Lafuente in Santander.
Arte Y Parte Revista De Arte Espana Portugal Y America, 2014
La revista explora y experimenta el concepto decollage creado por Vostell, esto es: la construcci... more La revista explora y experimenta el concepto decollage creado por Vostell, esto es: la construccion de un nuevo significado a traves de la destruccion, fragmentacion o desplazamientos de un significado original. Con espeicla interes en el fluxus y los happenings, publica documentos, proyectos y colaboraciones de artistas como George Brecht, Claes Oldenburg, Al Hansen, George Maciunas, La Monte Young, Stanley Brouwn, Charlotte Moorman, Jean Tinguely y el propio Vostell.
El relato sobre el nacimiento de la red de artistas Fluxus en Alemania en 1962 se situa en un ter... more El relato sobre el nacimiento de la red de artistas Fluxus en Alemania en 1962 se situa en un territorio intermedio entre la historia y la leyenda. Como pionero del Arte de Accion, Fluxus desarrollo una practica artistica efimera que priva a la historiografia del arte de su objeto habitual de estudio (la obra de arte en el sentido material del termino), confrontandola con la ausencia de lo sucedido. Entre los acontecimientos y su rastro documental se abre un vacio; vacio que los artistas de Fluxus supieron llenar con sus voces, ecos multiples de lo legendario. Esta tesis doctoral parte de la identificacion y analisis de lo que la autora denomina el mito (a)fundacional de Fluxus, evidenciando las estrategias de posicionamiento que esconde y las preguntas de indole historiografica que plantea. Dichas preguntas se abordan a traves de un cotejo del mito con la realidad, efectuado en torno a tres ejes fundamentales: los eventos inaugurales de Fluxus, que se reconstruyen con la mayor prec...
Este seminario quiere pensar aquellas prácticas artísticas que indagan entre las fuerzas de la es... more Este seminario quiere pensar aquellas prácticas artísticas que indagan entre las fuerzas de la escritura y la abstracción pictórica desde sus fundamentos estéticos. A partir de la “escritura experimental” desarrollada en las décadas de eclosión del arte Intermedia (1950-1970) en Europa y América, la propuesta se centra en obras que mantienen una tensión irresoluble entre el lenguaje y la representación, poniendo el acento en la corporalidad de la escritura
El archivo es siempre una vuelta a empezar. Es ese lugar, centralizado o disperso, al que las inv... more El archivo es siempre una vuelta a empezar. Es ese lugar, centralizado o disperso, al que las investigadoras y los investigadores vuelven para reescribir las historias del arte, reformular sus preguntas y reinventar sus enfoques. Es también esa figura de pensamiento que tantas y tantos artistas contemporáneos hacen y deshacen con su trabajo.
Although the Fluxus art (non-)movement is often read as a historical phenomenon, the breadth of i... more Although the Fluxus art (non-)movement is often read as a historical phenomenon, the breadth of its innovations and complexities actively thwarts linear and circumscribed viewpoints. The notion of Fluxus incorporates contradiction in challenging and enduringly generative ways. More than five decades after its emergence, this special issue of OnCurating entitled Fluxus Perspectives seeks to re-examine the influence, roles, and effects of Fluxus via a wide range of scholarly perspectives. The editors asked notable writers from different locations, generations, and viewpoints, all of whom having written about Fluxus before, to offer their thoughts on its significance, particularly in relation to contemporary artmaking and strategies of curating today.
Edited by Martin Patrick and Dorothee Richter
Contributions by Simon Anderson, Jordan Carter, Kevin Concannon, Ken Friedman, Natilee Harren, John Held, Jr., Hannah B Higgins, Hanna B. Hölling, Natasha Lushetich, Billie Maciunas, Peter van der Meijden, Ann Noël, Martin Patrick, Dorothee Richter, Henar Rivière, Julia Robinson, Owen F. Smith, Weronika Trojanska, Emmett Williams
Unpaged. How to Revisit History from a Plural Perspective?, 2021
"Henar Rivière’s case study deals with a work by Argentine artist Graciela Gutiérrez Marx entitle... more "Henar Rivière’s case study deals with a work by Argentine artist Graciela Gutiérrez Marx entitled "Grupo de familia. Reconstrucción de un mito / Family Group. Assembling a Myth", later renamed "Los códices marginales de Mamablanca / The Marginal Codices of Mamablanca" realized in different stages between 1980 and 1981. Her focus is on Gutiérrez Marx’s ethical and aesthetic universe, the artist’s theoretical thinking, which revolved around the concept of "arte íntimo" (inmost art) offering a revealing insight into the notion of art and the archive as process. Rivière analyses the key term “marginalisation” rooted in modesty aimed at opposing resistance leading to the existential and geopolitical dimensions of Gutiérrez Marx's theory and practice of inmost art. "Family Group" is an example of a profound sense of community, which is held together in a form of communication based on listening, by means of which she introduces stimulating alternatives to the common understanding of mail art networking" (Alina Șerban and Daniel Grúň)
Escuchar con los ojos. Arte sonoro en España, 1961-2016
Este libro-catálogo y los contenidos sonoros, textuales y visuales que lo complementan [de acceso... more Este libro-catálogo y los contenidos sonoros, textuales y visuales que lo complementan [de acceso libre en www.march.es] se publican con motivo de la exposición "Escuchar con los ojos. Arte sonoro en España, 1961-2016", Fundación Juan March.
Un ambito muy fertil para el desarrollo de la escritura experimental – recogida en la exposicion ... more Un ambito muy fertil para el desarrollo de la escritura experimental – recogida en la exposicion Escritura experimental en Espana 1963-1983 que el CBA programo en 2014- fue el del arte postal, en cuya practica destaco el escritor Jose Luis Castillejo durante su periodo Caj. Embajador de profesion y coleccionista de arte, Castillejo, representado en la exposicion mencionada, se inicio en el mundo de la escritura experimental a partir de su contacto con este grupo pionero del arte de accion, a el se debe uno de los capitulos mas interesantes a nivel internacional del arte postal.
Mirando a Clio El Arte Espanol Espejo De Su Historia Actas Del Xviii Congreso Del Ceha Santiago De Compostela 20 24 De Septiembre De 2010 2012 Isbn 978 84 9887 840 0, 2012
Fluxus and Zaj issue a challenge to the Historiography of Art as pioneers of Performance Art. Bor... more Fluxus and Zaj issue a challenge to the Historiography of Art as pioneers of Performance Art. Born in the beginning of the sixties, both experimental Neo-Avant-Gardes inaugurated this new kind of artistic practice, which emphasizes eventuality and multiplicity, and thus excludes the creation of concluded, closed, lasting works of art. The present paper deals with the difficulties that such a practice poses to Art Historians. It does so by means of a methodological approach of historiographical reconstruction, to which a critical analysis is applied, allowing for new ways of interpreting and understanding this challenge. Moreover, being carried out as a comparative analysis between both Zaj and Fluxus, this article points out relevant affinities and differences between them, helping outline the character and singularity of each one.
This International Seminar revolves around the notion and practice of what Hungarian artist Györg... more This International Seminar revolves around the notion and practice of what Hungarian artist György Galántai calls “active archives”. Born as underground cultural institutions in the 1970s and 1980s, the active archives not only assumed the passive role of preserving the memory of artistic practices invisible to the official art system, but also activated, fed and fed back on these practices, serving as nodes or intersectional points in a constant collective exchange within the international networks of mail art. The archival institution itself became thus a self-referential artistic practice, performative and conceptual in nature, altering the relationship between artistic creation and knowledge creation, and demanding new ways of thinking about, describing and exhibiting art, as well as the social processes associated with it.
Artpool40 – Active Archives and Art Networks International Conference of the Artpool Art Research Cente, 2020
Some of the main Fluxus archives, today housed at established cultural institutions such as the G... more Some of the main Fluxus archives, today housed at established cultural institutions such as the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles (USA) and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (Germany), were assembled under the stimulus and guidance of first-generation Fluxus artists (George Maciunas and Wolf Vostell in the cases mentioned). This tells us that these pioneers of network-based art practices were keenly aware from the very outset of the crucial role played by the document in — and within — their artistic praxis. Moreover, it indicates the importance they placed on the archive as a space where these documents were compiled and preserved in the expectation that they would eventually be activated as devices for a new approach to art history.
The purpose of this paper is to show that understanding the archival practice as a creative process aimed at redefining the past, transforming the present, and envisioning the future was inherent to the new artistic developments taking place under the Fluxus umbrella from the early 1960s onwards. The early forms of performative and network-based art practices posed a challenge, both to the historiography and the economy of art, that would naturally extend to the archive as an alternative cultural institution: a sort of foreign body pushing from outside the walls of the official art system that would eventually succeed in opening up a crack by infiltrating established cultural institutions. These, which we can call Other Archives (paraphrasing Ulises Carrión), required, and still do so, other stories and histories of art, other research methodologies, and historiographical constructs, as well as other curatorial and museological practices. Insofar as this step emanates directly from the very artistic practices they bear witness to, these Other Archives can be seen as channeling the transformative power of those artistic practices to the historiographical, curatorial and museographical practices.
A selection of case studies from the Fluxus network, ranging from Mail Art and collective projects to Artists’ Archives and publications, will illustrate how the transformative power of the early forms of performative and network-based art practices was largely based on a documental approach aimed at shifting the rules of the game of the art system.
LOW-TECH MUSIC SESSION (Ahora que te escucho, ¿que fue de la música de acción?), 2020
Fluxus y Zaj son los nombres propios de dos concreciones más o menos definidas de la experimentac... more Fluxus y Zaj son los nombres propios de dos concreciones más o menos definidas de la experimentación artística que, surgida a partir de finales de la década de 1950, le fue dando forma a las nuevas prácticas que recorrieron los años sesenta y setenta, transformando de forma radical y definitiva el panorama artístico internacional. El arte de la performance, el arte conceptual o las redes del arte postal se fraguaron en el seno de Zaj y de Fluxus a través de un quehacer que puso el énfasis en la acción, desbordando los límites de las disciplinas artísticas tradicionales para confluir en una concepción del «hecho musical como búsqueda de un lenguaje no exclusivamente sonoro», en palabras del artista Zaj Juan Hidalgo.
Este seminario quiere pensar aquellas prácticas artísticas que indagan entre las fuerzas de la es... more Este seminario quiere pensar aquellas prácticas artísticas que indagan entre las fuerzas de la escritura y la abstracción pictórica desde sus fundamentos estéticos. A partir de la “escritura experimental” occidental desarrollada en las décadas de eclosión del arte Intermedia (1950-1970) en Europa y América del Norte y del Sur, la propuesta se centra en obras que mantienen una tensión irresoluble entre el lenguaje y la representación, poniendo el acento en la corporalidad de la escritura. El seminario se articula en torno a tres ejes fundamentales: pintura-escritura, escritura-pintura y la intersección de ambas. Este enfoque tripartito nos servirá para superar la habitual lectura binaria de los contactos entre pintura y escritura, y pensar su complejidad desde las propuestas que adelantaron las filosofías “postestructuralistas” de los años setenta. Con ello, no sólo se abordará un campo inédito en el ámbito español y escasamente estudiado a nivel internacional, sino que se sacarán a la luz propuestas artísticas que habían quedado hasta ahora ensombrecidas precisamente por la complejidad y profundidad de sus planteamientos, alejados de la noción metafísica de escritura.
Modernism Today. XIXth Conference of the Modernist Studies Association (MSA)", 2017
Panelists: Bertrand Clavez (“Maciunas' ‘Rear-garde’: Paths Towards a Non
Rearguard Postmodernism... more Panelists: Bertrand Clavez (“Maciunas' ‘Rear-garde’: Paths Towards a Non
Rearguard Postmodernism”), Peter van der Meijden (“Permission to Rummage in Knud Pedersen’s Pockets”) and Henar Rivière (“Ripping Up the Present: Wolf Vostell’s magazine dé-coll/age”)
Paper read at the conference "Fluxus, un triomphe amer", Musée d'Art Moderne et
Contemporain de ... more Paper read at the conference "Fluxus, un triomphe amer", Musée d'Art Moderne et
Contemporain de Saint-Étienne, France.
Paper read at the conference "Fluxus Today. Action Art in Performance, Research, Exhibition, Arch... more Paper read at the conference "Fluxus Today. Action Art in Performance, Research, Exhibition, Archive", Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
Although the Fluxus art (non-)movement is often read as a historical phenomenon, the breadth of i... more Although the Fluxus art (non-)movement is often read as a historical phenomenon, the breadth of its innovations and complexities actively thwarts linear and circumscribed viewpoints. The notion of Fluxus incorporates contradiction in challenging and enduringly generative ways. More than five decades after its emergence, this special issue of OnCurating entitled Fluxus Perspectives seeks to re-examine the influence, roles, and effects of Fluxus via a wide range of scholarly perspectives. The editors Martin Patrick and Dorothee Richter asked notable writers from different locations, generations, and viewpoints, all of whom having written about Fluxus before, to offer their thoughts on its significance, particularly in relation to contemporary art. With its emphasis upon events, festivals, and exhibitions, Fluxus may also be interpreted as an important, prescient forerunner of contemporary strategies of curating.
Contributions by Simon Anderson, Jordan Carter, Kevin Concannon, Ken Friedman, Natilee Harren, John Held, Jr., Hannah B Higgins, Hanna B. Hölling, Natasha Lushetich, Billie Maciunas, Peter van der Meijden, Ann Noël, Martin Patrick, Dorothee Richter, Henar Rivière, Julia Robinson, Owen F. Smith, Weronika Trojanska, and Emmett Williams.
Uploads
Journal by Henar Rivière
Books by Henar Rivière
Papers by Henar Rivière
Edited by
Martin Patrick and Dorothee Richter
Contributions by
Simon Anderson, Jordan Carter, Kevin Concannon, Ken Friedman, Natilee Harren, John Held, Jr., Hannah B Higgins, Hanna B. Hölling, Natasha Lushetich, Billie Maciunas, Peter van der Meijden, Ann Noël, Martin Patrick, Dorothee Richter, Henar Rivière, Julia Robinson, Owen F. Smith, Weronika Trojanska, Emmett Williams
Edited by
Martin Patrick and Dorothee Richter
Contributions by
Simon Anderson, Jordan Carter, Kevin Concannon, Ken Friedman, Natilee Harren, John Held, Jr., Hannah B Higgins, Hanna B. Hölling, Natasha Lushetich, Billie Maciunas, Peter van der Meijden, Ann Noël, Martin Patrick, Dorothee Richter, Henar Rivière, Julia Robinson, Owen F. Smith, Weronika Trojanska, Emmett Williams
The purpose of this paper is to show that understanding the archival practice as a creative process aimed at redefining the past, transforming the present, and envisioning the future was inherent to the new artistic developments taking place under the Fluxus umbrella from the early 1960s onwards. The early forms of performative and network-based art practices posed a challenge, both to the historiography and the economy of art, that would naturally extend to the archive as an alternative cultural institution: a sort of foreign body pushing from outside the walls of the official art system that would eventually succeed in opening up a crack by infiltrating established cultural institutions. These, which we can call Other Archives (paraphrasing Ulises Carrión), required, and still do so, other stories and histories of art, other research methodologies, and historiographical constructs, as well as other curatorial and museological practices. Insofar as this step emanates directly from the very artistic practices they bear witness to, these Other Archives can be seen as channeling the transformative power of those artistic practices to the historiographical, curatorial and museographical practices.
A selection of case studies from the Fluxus network, ranging from Mail Art and collective projects to Artists’ Archives and publications, will illustrate how the transformative power of the early forms of performative and network-based art practices was largely based on a documental approach aimed at shifting the rules of the game of the art system.
Rearguard Postmodernism”), Peter van der Meijden (“Permission to Rummage in Knud Pedersen’s Pockets”) and Henar Rivière (“Ripping Up the Present: Wolf Vostell’s magazine dé-coll/age”)
Contemporain de Saint-Étienne, France.
Contributions by Simon Anderson, Jordan Carter, Kevin Concannon, Ken Friedman, Natilee Harren, John Held, Jr., Hannah B Higgins, Hanna B. Hölling, Natasha Lushetich, Billie Maciunas, Peter van der Meijden, Ann Noël, Martin Patrick, Dorothee Richter, Henar Rivière, Julia Robinson, Owen F. Smith, Weronika Trojanska, and Emmett Williams.