Ben Vautier
A Flux Suicide Kit
New York City, USA: Fluxus, 1967
9 x 12 x 2.5 cm.
Edition size unknown
A Flux Suicide Kit is a seven-compartment plastic box containing various one might use to self-harm: a shard of glass, matches, BBs, a razor, nails, fish hooks, an electrical plug with frayed cord, etc.
Like all Fluxus editions, it features graphic design by Maciunus, this time what looks to be a medical drawing (an acupuncturist’s chart?) indicating pressure points on the head.
Vautier told Fluxus curator Jon Hendricks "I used two live electric wires: you tie them to your ears and put your feet in a bucket of water, sleeping pills, rope. They were real systems. I never used nails or fish hooks, those were from [George] Maciunas".
See the original suitcase prototype below, followed by the George Maciunas’ mechanical for the plastic box.
Ben took his own life on June 5th of this year, hours after his wife Annie died of natural causes. She was 85 and he was 88. They had been married for sixty years.
“Unwilling and unable to live without her, Ben killed himself a few hours later at their home,” their children Eva and Francois said.
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