Monday, September 3, 2012

Ben Vautier newsletter (Aug 28)


Hello this is
From Ben Vautier
A quick newsletter in English
Before i leave for Wiesbaden
My newsletters are usually in French
if I write in English
i must think in English
it is an unusual exercise for me
I just finshed my show at Catherine Issert gallery
and i am suffering
of an Art and ego indigestion
My mind goes up and down
i am not feeling so well
what's more
I am loosing my memory
I often forget what I meant to write
no joke
But i fight it
Too much too think about
I never learnt how to rest
Maybe i go to Wiesbaden with the panel
“To forget Fluxus is Fluxus “

By the way
Sometimes i think Maciunas
Invented the “Fluxus concert “ by
Just putting together small pieces of friends
From here and there
Pieces that If they had been left alone
Would only have been personal modern art works
Not Fluxus
I would give Maciunas
5/10 for personal newness ?
And 8/10 for putting newness together

By the way
What's nice about Alzheimer?
is that my mind jumps from
One thing to another
I can't read theoretical texts anymore
But i can imagine new theories
i even have new theory's on the universe
On politics on ethnics on sex
The Swiss editor Favre
Has proposed to publish my theories

By the way
I am astonished
Although My spelling mistakes are horrible
My English is not so bad
Personally I would enjoy I f I could stop worrying
Just sit down have a drink
Make (not love ) but court a pretty girl
And write some philosophy

By the way
I just found this quote on my computer
I had written last time in new york
what comes next
after instruction art
Attitude art ?
no art ?
Give up art?
Who care about art?
Why art?
or back to folk art
Such topics interst me
Why folk art?
Because it has to do a people and memory
an Inuit a German a Bambara
a Hoppy an Italian each have their own language
Own words thus own vision of the world “

By the way
i was reading that homo sapiens wiped out
The more pacific Neanderthal
So as a homo sapiens i have no excuse

By the way
Fluxus will finish being archaeology
And scholarship
i would have enjoyed seeing Fluxus alive
Finishing up in analysing ego
Opening up ego like a suit case

By the way
I hate feeling anxious
This 50 years of Fluxus
Makes lots of people think
It is my turn
I was here before them etc
i really like the Fluxus crowd
Ben Paterson
Eric Anderson
Allison Knowles Henry Flynt
ken Friedman ETC
But you agree we are
Just a bunch of super homo sapiens Fluxus egoists
Annie says i see ego and aggressivity everywhere
Because I am myself an aggressive egoist
my mummy told me not to believe in man kind
was she right or wrong

By the way
Afghanistan Syria Libya
Just power
Rapports de force

By the way
How is Allison
I love her short emails
i herd that like me
she is Slowly loosing her memory

By the way
Had the visit of Xatrex and Julia Robertson
She spent the day saying
“oh my god “
And taking photos of my
of Brecht la Monte young a Henry Flynt archives
JULIA has a great smile

By the way
Someone told me
La Monte young
Was against publishing in Anthology
Simple events by George Brecht
He wanted to be the first
To do short pieces

By the way
Jean Dupuy tells wonderful stories
Of his life in New-York
Listening to him is just as if you were there

By the way
I like Tomas newsletters

By the way
Julia and Xatrex
Are head and tales for henry Flynt
Flynt is made like all of us of ego
Sometimes crazy
And Some times new because crazy

By the way
My grandson without knowing my interest for Flynt
Told me the other day I am interested i
in a musician I found on the net
I said who?
he said Henry Flynt

By the way
I just received the visit of Jeannette
From Kitchen Amsterdam
she says
Harry Ruhe is an important man in Wiesbaden
Since 4 months he has his Fluxus shop
in front of the museum
Jonas Mekas
Showed his films
Robert watts wrote
“Das wichtige an Fluxus ist dass
Niemand weiss was es ist “
Dick Higgins
Ben Patterson opened a bar in june
Harry did the four fluxus boxes
Potsdam showed fluxus Performance films
Some one said
Aber wo ist Beuys?

By the way
I study ego in Fluxus
I hate both sides of my own ego
I hate myself when
People coming to me ask “you are ben?
And I hate myself when they don't ask me

By the way
I remember once I told la Monte young
We are all egoists and do art too only to help our ego
He said no
I do art for the enrichment of mankind

By the way
Ben Patterson has when he wants
the nice voice of a a radio speaker
Of the sixties

By the way
I just recieved
Ben Patterson catalogue from Huston
Very impressive full of
Humour truth and philosophy

By the way
Fluxus concert pieces can be boring
When ego turns pieces
that should be short
into long te deums

By the way
I work all day with lists
One list after the other
And the lists go into notebooks
And then back too lists

By the way
just as say's Abraham Moles
Better have a brain that runs amuck
Then a dead brain

By the way
As I never throw anything Away
and horde and classify everything
I also use my site on the net
ben -vautier .com
as a huge garbage can
that contains all my junk
poetry sex politics fluxus etc

By the way
Just a few words to say I like Gabor Toth
Just a few words
to say we are all getting old
each day little more

By the way
We were talking about all those
Who left us
And someone said
Who is going to die next?
Annie said Fluxus never dies

By the way
I wonder if it is a strong or a weak point
When I say
I don't like myself
I don't believe in ben vautier

By the way
I must thank john Hendricks for
Sending me all these clippings
About ethnics
And phoning to keep my moral up

By the way
Caterina Gualco brought out a
book on Fluxus in Italy
200 pages
I would never had imagined
That Italy had so much Fluxus activity

By the way
Since Francesco Conz Fluxus collection is blocked
By law
every day it gets bigger and bigger

By the way
Fleurice Wurz sent me this list of
what happening around Fluxus into 2012 :
Blois
Wiesbaden
Saint Etienne
Chiasso
Potsdam
Genova
And that is only the beginning
Etc

By the way
Bernard Blistene phoned me from Berlin
Ben I visited the Fluxus show in Berlin
They don't have a single ben vautier
In the show

By the way
Blois Fluxus museum
Blois is still on the list
But I have given up wanting to decide
Blois is 2 hours from Paris
Galdin a Goulesque are working hard
To turn blois into
a Fluxus super zen center
Gino will be maybe lending a great part of his collection

By the way
The Fluxus show's Caterina Gualco is doing
in her gallery en Genova are called “we are still alive”
Her shows start in January and finishing in March 2012

By the way
About Fluxus concerts
if you agree or not
I believe the magic of a Fluxus concert
Comes from Maciunas cocktail making
Mixing of Brecht, Paik, and Patterson etc

By the way
Daniel Crippa And Caterina Gualco Were
The organizers of the Catania show
Wherr Ben Patterson gave a fantastic fluxus concert

By the way
In Nice france
The boxing ring at the villa arson
Went well
Lots of new funny pieces
Mamadou invented a pure Fluxus piece
He starts by reading a book and after 1 mnute
reads aloud
“the public must try to cover my voice “
every body started talking
At the same time
I liked the piece
Another Ring piece was
When Catanea took of her clothes
(the top only) sat on the a chair
and we gave out pencils a paper for the audience to draw her
Also a beautiful Cage peace by Françoise Apter
30 Marbles
every time she put a marble on the floor a note of music
was played (by a computer )

By the way
My big problem with Fluxus is ego
Although some supposed Fluxus after Cage and Duchamp
Contained less ego
I still believe Fluxus contains as much
ego as any other art movement
new relisme futurism
So i imagined a piece
i come on stage and say
Ben vautier is jealous of marcel duchamp
Ben vautier is jealous of Rembrandt
Ben vautier is jealous of Rubens
Ben vautier is jealous of manet
Ben vautier is jealous of jean dupuy
Ben vautier is jealous of Dick Higgins
Ben vautier is jealous of Vostell
Ben vautier is jealous of joseph Beuys
Ben vautier is jealous of Yoko Ono
Ben vautier is jealous of George Brecht
Ben vautier is jealous of Eric anderson
Ben vautier is jealous of Ken Friedman
Ben vautier is jealous of Brancusi
Ben vautier is jealous of Daniel Spoerri
Ben vautier is jealous of John cage
Ben vautier is jealous of Larry Miller
Ben vautier is jealous of Robert filliou
Etc

By the way
A variation could be with random names picked up
From a hat
Ben Vautier is jealous of Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono is jealous of George Brecht
Goerge Brecht is jealous of Takako
Takako is jealous of Ken Friedman
Ken Friedman is jealous of Eric Anderson
Eric Anderson is jealous of Duchamp
Duchamp is jealous of Brancusi
Brancusi is jealous of etc
is jealous of

By the way
Loosing my memory is painful
so i have decided to try to quit the game

By the way
Jeanette told me Willem de Ridder will be in Wiesbaden
I loved that piece with the two chairs
I saw in Extrema Dura

By the way
i have tons of archives
on Fluxus
Looking threw them i found
My Fluxus pages
for Gino's ben Vautier bullshit issue
Unprintable too nasty

By the way
Pierre Jean Galdin (from Blois )is coming to Nice
after tomorrow
We are supposed to take a plane together for Frankfurt
Then rent a car and go to Wiesbaden to see
Ben Patterson's show and
Participate in Ben's ring
I don't quite get what they expect from me
at the moment I don't have the energy necessary
to start worrying
But it may come and I am sure

By the way
Its late I have to go to sleep
All my newsletters are on my site
Ben-vautier .com
And all you have to do
is clic below to get out of my mailing list
thanks and Good night
ben

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