Milan Knížák | FLUGGEFÜHL

Milan Knížák

FLUGGEFÜHL

Stuttgart, Germany: Akademie Schloá, 1991

[pp. 92], 23.2 x 16.3 cm., softcover

Edition of 500

Documentation of the action "Feeling of Flying” involving a nude woman (possibly his wife Jane) jumping in the air. Documented by Knížák in 1983. Text in German.

George Maciunas | New Flux Year

George Maciunas

New Flux Year

New York City, USA: Fluxus, c. 1967

11.9 x 7 x 7 cm. [closed]

Edition size unknown

A commercial relief printed box in faux-reptile skin, with transfer type, containing a cloth covered spring, noise maker, and offset confetti printed with the title.

 

After assembling these items, George Maciunas, mailed copies of the box to Fluxus artists and friends around the globe. Milan Knizak received one in Prague, where he recalled the shock customs officials received upon examining the work. Yoko Ono and John Lennon also received one, which they responded to with the below letter, on Apple Records letterhead. 

“Why don’t our friend drop in to say hello? If he is up to sending us a snake...??? Happy New Years!!! Love John and Yoko."

Milan Knížák | Necklace

Milan Knížák
Necklace
Remscheid, Germany: Edition VICE-Versand, 1968
41.3 x 30.2 cm.
Edition of 2,000


Necklace (or Halsschmuck) is presumably designed to cut the clothes of the wearer, given the 'destruction' that features in much of the artists' other work (Broken Music, etc).  

The work originally sold for twelve German Marks (or under eight dollars American), which would be the equivalent of around sixty-five dollars, accounting for inflation.

It is unlikely that the full edition of two thousand copies were produced, given the scarcity of the work now. 

Milan Knížák | Flux White Meditation

Milan Knížák

Flux White Meditation

New York City, USA: Fluxus, 1969

11.9 x 10 x 1 cm.

Edition size unknown

Milan Knížák's works are incredibly important to the history of sound art, and Artists' Records in particular (Ursula Block took the name of one of his Broken Music as the title for her quintessential book on the subject), and his Vice-Versand edition is excellent.

His boxed works for Fluxus, however, are all pretty poor. Flux Snakes is particularly bad, and the empty boxes of Flux Dreams has been done better by many others, before and since. 

Flux White Meditation features a plastic box with an offset label (as always, designed by George Maciunas - see his early study for the graphic below) and containing white powder. 

Curator Jon Hendricks writes in Fluxus Codex: "Narcotic powder? dust? ashes? crushed rocks? The work is not explained and could relate to any number of Knizak's activities". He also adds that "Knížák has a very ambivalent attitude toward the Fluxus realizations of his pieces and remembers very little of their genesis." This suggests that they may have been throw-away ideas that Maciunas ran with. 

Flux White Meditation was reissued/continued by Barbara Moore's Reflux Editions in the 1980s. Both versions remain scarce. 

Grappa Fluxus Box 2

[Various artists]

Grappa Fluxus Box 2

Molvena, Italy: Massimo Lunardon, 1997

40 x 62.5 x 16 cm.

Edition of 8

A follow-up to the original Grappa Fluxus, four years prior. A Serigraphed wooden box with hinged doors, containing glass blown works by six artists affiliated with Fluxus:  Eric Andersen, Dick Higgins, Milan Knizak, Takako Saito, Mieko Shiomi, Ben Vautier.

"In 1995 Luigi Bonotto asked me to design a bottle for Grappa (Italian brandy). I wanted to make a bottle whose shape has features of wind instruments and string instruments, yet is none of them – an imaginary primitive shape of an instrument. Inside the bottle is genuine Grappa."

- Mieko Shiomi

Hundertmark Edition Box No. 1

[Various Artists]

Hundertmark Edition Box No. 1

Cologne, Germany:  Edition Hundertmark, 1970

25.5 x 32 x 3 cm.

Edition of 25

The first Boxed collective work published by Edition Hundertmark, from the Bonotto Foundation collection. The cardboard box contains work by Joseph Beuys, Gunter Brus, Robert Filliou, Ken Friedman, Ludwig Gosewitz, Milan Knizak, Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch, Gerard Ruhm, Thomas Schmitt and Ben Vautier (who appears to have been a last minute addition). 

The following works are included: 

J. Beuys

- "Manifesto", No. 0327E

Photocopies stamped, 29.5 x 21 cm.

Signed

- "...der freie demokratische sozialistische Staat...", No. 0976E

Photocopies stamped, 29.5 x 21 cm.

Signed

- "Wahlverweigerung", No. 0876E

Poster, 60 x 43 cm.

G. Brus, "ZERREISSPROBE"

Performance photos, 29.5 x 21 cm.

Signed

R. Filliou, "not sold but definitive closed", No. 0912E

Invitation card with pencil assigned stroked,

write on back, 10.5 x 14.5 cm.

Signed

K. Friedman, "dear sports fan...", No. 0785E

Two sheets photocopied, 29.5 x 21 cm.

Signed

L. Gosewitz, "Tankerkapitän", No. 0987E

Colored drawing, 29.5 x 21 cm.

Signed and dated 1970

M. Knížák, "Actualized Clothes", No. 0988E

Burnt nylon shirt, 34 x 23 cm.

Signed and dated 1970

O. Muehl, "Investmentfond"

Performance photo, 21 x 29.5 cm.

Signed and dated 1970

H. Nitsch, "Aktion"

Performance photo, 29.5 x 21 cm.

Dated 1969

G. Rühm, "Hommage an Fontana", No. 0934E

White cardboard cut incision

with a band-aid strip sealed, 29.5 x 21cm.

Signed and dated 1970

T. Schmit, "(im freien über den kopf halten und lesen)", No. 0965E

Collage and a write on white box, 21 x 29.5 cm.

Signed and dated 1970

B. Vautier, "art is death...", No. 0986E

Written on a blotter, 21 x 29.5 cm.

Signed and numbered 87.617.5