Holy Fluxus: The Francesco Conz Collection in Berlin

Robert Delford Brown, Mrs. God's Little Boy, 2002. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection
July 13 - September 8, 2024
St. Matthäus Church
Berlin
Curators: Hubertus v. Amelunxen and Monika Branicka

By MARK BLOCH, October 2024

Presented to the public for the first time, work by over 200 artists from the eccentric Italian collector Francesco Conz’s vast archives were finally displayed in Berlin from last July through last month. Curated by Hubertus v. Amelunxen, the director of the Archivio Conz, and the art historian and curator Monika Branicka, some 5,000  examples of Fluxus, concrete poetry, Lettrism, Pop, concept art and new music-related objects in the possession of Conz's Verona estate were digitized and cataloged in an eight years process that was preceded by an air of mystery about where the works might end up. I am happy to report that now they have appeared as art icons in the very German St. Matthäus Church on the Matthäikirchplatz in Berlin, next to the Neue Nationalgalerie.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection, Installation view. Ann Noel, You, 1988; Emmet Williams, Stained Glass Windows for the Fluxus Cathedral, 1988 and Nam June Paik, Fluxus Island in Decollage Ocean, 1962-89. Photograph by Giorgia Palmisano. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

Following an opening on Friday, July 12, 2024, it was declared that the 5,000 objects by over 200 artists of the Conz Archive will now be based in Berlin where they were then presented to the public for the first time. The exhibition “Holy Fluxus - The Francesco Conz Collection” shows Fluxus as the keystone of an Eternal Network, a term coined by Robert Filliou in the 1960s, of connected individuals, with this installation of their work in St. Matthäus Church manifesting the resonance of a connection between art and spirituality.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection, Installation view. Carolee Schneemann, Untitled Piano; Henri Chopin, Les Riches Heures Magnetiques, 1987 and  Eric Andersen, The Portable Crying Stone, 1989. Photograph by Giorgia Palmisano. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

The show of selected works by Dorothy Iannone, Allan Kaprow, George Maciunas, Hermann Nitsch, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Carolee Schneemann and Daniel Spoerri, among others presents Fluxus and its related tendencies as a global phenomenon in the art world since the early 1960s: neither art movement, nor ism, not an avant-garde replacing the other, but a “constellation” of life and art, as Eugen Gomringer, one of the artists in the show, a German Bolivian-born concrete poet, described it. Fluxus manifested itself mainly in performances, festivals, actions and musical events- all forms that are based on the experience, interaction and encounters of people and brought together artists from a wide variety of art movements around the world, including concrete poetry, Lettrism, Pop, conceptual art or new music. "Fluxus has not even begun yet," wrote the Berlin Fluxus artist Tomas Schmit 50 years ago, citing  the constant rediscovery and reevaluation of these tendencies for several years now internationally.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection, Installation view. Charlotte Moorman, Cellos, 1983 and Ben Patterson, Flying Cello 2001. Photograph by Giorgia Palmisan. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

Francesco Conz (1935-2010) was an obsessive collector, patron, curator, artist friend and the "producer as artist sui generis"  as described by Thomas Marquard, an illustrator and designer. After meeting Hermann Nitsch, Günter Brus and Joe Jonas in Berlin in 1972, Conz’s interests focused on Lettrism, Concrete Poetry, Viennese Actionism, Fluxus, music and literature. In the following decades, he constructed a home base for his unique worldwide network of artists. He published over 560 art editions called Edizioni Conz in the northern Italian cities of Asolo and Verona, contributing significantly to the development of Fluxus and related international activities emanting out from Italy.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection, Installation view. Charlotte Moorman, Avantgarde Volskwagen and Nam June Paik, Cello Bomb mounted on the Car. Photograph by Giorgia Palmisano. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

“Every new artistic creation is a new interpretation of paradise; to disregard this reinterpretation of theology is to break with past culture and the future of humanity," wrote Isidore Isou, the founder of Lettrism, in an exhibited work.  

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection, Installation view. Emmet Williams, Alphabet Square, 1956-1983. Photograph by Giorgia Palmisano. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

“As spiritual grandchildren of the Dadaists, as survivors of World War II, successors of Marcel Duchamp and John Cage, Fluxus artists questioned belief in the work of art and any veneration of images. Idolatry, but not art itself. Their radical response to the crisis of the work of art in the 20th century was the conception of art as a community, linked to no ideology, to no other concept than the constant address to people in society,” said curator Monika Branicka. “This is not without parallels to the Ecclesia,” she added.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection, Installation view. Eugen Gomringer, Ekstase Kosmos Chaos and  George Brecht , Void, 1990-95. Photograph by Giorgia Palmisano. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

The critical or humorous examination of the church is visible literally in works such as the “First National Church of the Exquisite Panic, Inc.” by the American artist Robert Delford Brown, the “Church Windows for the Fluxus Cathedral” by Emmett Williams or Hermann Nitsch’s “Last Supper.”

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection, Installation view. Eugen Gomringer, Kosmos, Askese, Ekstase, 1991 and Hermann Nitsch, Last Supper, 1983. Photograph by  Giorgia Palmisano. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

Spirituality is a central theme for Fluxus and certainly in this exhibit. Music and concrete poetry as forms of interpersonal communication are another focus. A “hymn book” with concrete poetry to take away was published for the exhibition, and concrete poetry was integrated into church services during the run of the exhibition. A free supporting program rounded out the activities every Tuesday at 7 p.m. with performances, readings and performances.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection, Installation view. Various artists, Holy Fluxus Table. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection, Installation view. Holy Fluxus Table (detail). Courtesy Archivio Conz.

“Francesco Conz, who came from a deeply religious Catholic family, developed a special interpretation of 'fetish' as a term for all remnants of the artistic process, a kind of relic of artists—the saints and martyrs of art. These fetishes—whether a piece of clothing, a brush or an artist's tooth—had no work of art status for Conz, but they hold the magic of creation,” Hubertus v. Amelunxen said.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection, Installation view. Photograph by  Giorgia Palmisano. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

For the Fluxus artists, art as a life experience has manifested itself, among other things, in joint meetings at a long table. The table in the extension of the altar takes on a symbolic role as a bearer of the community. It brings the altar into people’s lives and at the same time, as a horizontal exhibition space, it presents three aspects of art as a community that are important for both Conz and Fluxus: a place of encounter, of multi-authorship and of fetishes.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection. Lawrence Ferlinghetti Untitled 2000; Emmet Williams, Stained Glass windows for the Fluxus cathedral, 1988; Isidore Isou, 12 Hypergraphies Polylogues, 1964-1968 and Allan Kaprow, Look Inside for a Good Idea, Look Outside, 1997. Photograph by  Giorgia Palmisano. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

On display are around 200 works by Eric Andersen, Alain Arias-Misson, Ay-O, Jean-François Bory, Mark Brusse, Augusto and Haraldo de Campos, Ugo Carrega, Guiseppe Chiari, Henri Chopin, Philip Corner, Claudio Costa, Robert Delford Brown, Sari Dienes, Eric Dietman, Jean Dupuy, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Esther Ferrer, Robert Filliou, Ken Friedman, John Furnival, Ilse and Pierre Garnier, Eugen Gomringer, Ludwig Gosewitz, Bohumila Grögerová, Brion Gysin, Al Hansen, Bernard Heidsieck, Geoffrey Hendricks, Dick Higgins, Josef Hiršal, Sylvester Houédard, Dorothy Iannone, Isidore Isou, Tom Johnson, Joe Jones, Allan Kaprow, Milan Knížák, Alison Knowles, Richard Kostalelanetz, Robert Lax, Arrigo Lora-Totino, George Maciunas, Jackson Mac Low, Walter Marchetti, Larry Miller, Charlotte Moorman, Michael Morris, Hermann Nitsch, Ann Noël, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Ben Patterson, Mimmo Rotella, Gerhard Rühm, Saito Takako, Carolee Schneemann, Paul Sharits, Mieko Shomi, Daniel Spoerri, Jirí Valoch, Ben Vautier, Robert Watts, Emmett Williams and many others.

Holy Fluxus. The Francesco Conz Collection.  Philip Corner Fluxus free Speech  2006, Claudio Costa, Polenta Piano, 1989 and Robert Watts, New Yorker Cartoon, 1987. Photograph by Giorgia Palmisano. Courtesy Archivio Conz.

The show was organized by the Archivio Conz and the St. Matthäus Foundation.WM