GEORGE MACIUNAS TURNS 95! EXHIBITION “EXPERIENCE GEORGE MACIUNAS”

"Experiencing Fluxus as a way of life is the only way to know George". – Billie Maciunas

On Friday, October 16, at 6 PM, at the Kaunas Picture Gallery (K. Donelaičio St. 16, Kaunas), we invite you to the opening of the exhibition “Experiencing George Maciunas,” dedicated to the artist’s 95th birthday.

At 6:30 PM, Anton Lukoszevieze will present a performance based on George Maciunas’ 1962 “Solo for Balloons.” It is a work of experimental music in which sound emerges from simple actions and their performance.

This exhibition does not merely recount the past. It is a calling, through the works of modern Lithuanian artists, to re-experience George Maciunas' ideas today – that art itself can be life, and life can be constructed as a work of art, right here and now.

Fluxus is not just one more artistic style, it is a way of living and thinking, a distinct philosophy that aims to make everyday life creative, playful, full of surprises and jokes. Fluxus provokes questions that remain relevant: What is art? What should it be? Where does art end and life begin?

The exhibition presents independent and individual artists whose works reveal a personal creative spirit. It does not aim to copy Fluxus, instead, it features a diverse range of new forms reacting to the ideas and challenges posed by the movement.

George Maciunas was born in 1931 in Kaunas, the then provisional capital of Lithuania. He grew up in an environment where Lithuanian cultural tradition intertwined with European modernism, and where art was an inseparable part of everyday life. Later, having settled in New York, George became the pioneer and central figure of the Fluxus movement.

Seeking to make art a basic part of everyday life, George declared: Rain is anti-art, the murmur of a crowd is anti-art, a sneeze is anti-art, the flight of a butterfly and the movement of microbes are anti-art. They are just as beautiful and worthy of recognition as art itself.

George Maciunas brought together a circle of artists, musicians, poets, and thinkers who considered art not a separate sphere of life, on the contrary, life itself became for them a work of art. A bond between George and Vytautas Landsbergis, born during their school years, lasted a lifetime; thanks to Landsbergis, the radical ideas of Fluxus found their way to Lithuania during the Soviet era, later becoming an important part of our cultural history.

In New York, George met Jonas Mekas who, recognizing his talent, entrusted him with the design of the cult avant-garde cinema magazine Film Culture. In time, Mekas became one of the first residents of the Fluxhouse Cooperative in the SoHo district of New York, while his wife, Hollis Melton, assisted in administering the co-op buildings. George established another important acquaintance with Almus Šalčius, co-founder of the AG Gallery, with whom he conceived the idea of publishing a Lithuanian cultural magazine Fluxus.

These relationships were not accidental, they formed a vital part of Maciunas' biography. Collaborative communication, exchange of ideas, and constant flow were inseparable from his creative practice, as was his expansion of mail art.

George Maciunas was an exceptionally educated visionary, as well as a talented designer and architect. He studied art, graphic design, and architecture at the Cooper Union Institute, architecture and architectural engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and finally delved deeply into art history at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. Despite his elite education and international reputation, George chose an astonishingly simple, ascetic daily life, his style of dress and way of living often led contemporaries to compare him to a monk. 

Toward the end of his life, George met the poet Billie Hutching. By her side, he opened up, finding an intimacy and a partner who truly completed him, brought a sense of fulfillment to his life. Their radical 'Black and White' wedding performance, set to the madrigal Zefiro Torna by George's favourite composer Claudio Monteverdi became the culmination of his life and art. It was his final public appearance, a stage where art and life ultimately became one.

Artist: Jurgis Mačiūnas (George Maciunas), Hollis Melton, Monika Žaltė, Julija Račiūnaitė, Inga Navickaitė-Drąsutė, Rimantas Plungė, Romualdas Požerskis, Barbora Gediminaitė, Austėja Auškalnytė, Julius Ziz, Anton Lukoszevieze, Vytautas Buinevičius.

Curator: Vilma Dobilaitė

Partners: Valencia Photo, Billie Maciunas, Kauno menininkų namai
Coordinators: Lina Pranaitytė, Gintarė Žaltauskaitė-Mikutavičienė
Fluxus Collection Consultant: Miglė Morkūnaitė-Vervečkienė
Designer: Jonas Vaikšnoras