Ben Vautier
Flux Mystery Food
New York City, USA: Fluxus, 1967
8.1 x 6.7 x 6.7 cm.
Edition size unknown
When Ben Vautier wrote to George Maciunas in August of 1966 with some ideas for future editions, Maciunas responded enthusiastically to Flux Mystery Food: "THEY ARE ALL GREAT!!! I will print labels for them all. Flux Mystery food by Ben! VERY GOOD & easy to produce using readymade cans."
Shortly thereafter ads began appearing in Fluxus newsletters, and continued up until 1976, when the price for one of the above cans was $4.00.
The work dates back to the Fluxus Festival in Nice in 1963, which both artists participated in, performing some street theatre. One of the pieces involved buying unlabeled cans of identical size in the grocery store and eating whatever was inside —"curious" lychee nuts at the first performance, or salmon, canned sausages or sauerkraut.
I've never witnessed this, but I gather it was once common that grocery stores would sell cans whose labels had fallen away, deeply discounted. And there are certainly numerous stories of Macinas buying food in bulk this way, to cut costs.
An uncommon Fluxus edition.
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