interviewed by Nicholas Zurbrugg
The following interview took place during Nam June Paik's visit to Sydney for the Eighth Biennale of Sydney. Paik discusses some of the achievements of Fluxus, Beuys and his erstwhile video-collaborators presently working for M. T.V.
Nicholas Zurbrugg At the end of our interview the other day, you said that the Fluxus movement attempted to take the idea of fame away from the idea of the artist.
Nam June Paik Yes - we hope so! Yes, whether Fluxus has any common aesthetic or not, one thing which is remarkable about Fluxus is that for thirty years many different egos - twenty, thirty different artists - kept quite good friends and collaborated- which is remarkable. We must be very proud of it, because it is one of the very few anarchistic groups which has succeeded in surviving. Because with anarchists, by definition, the strongest guy becomes the dictator. In our case it didn't happen, basically speaking.
Nicholas Zurbrugg Would you say that there are any special differences between Fluxus in America and Fluxus in Europe?
Nam June Paik Hardly any. For instance, George Macunias, George Brecht, LaMonte Young, Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles were kind of cool people - they wouldn't go and shout 'I am not typical of Fluxus'. Fluxus is a kind of minimal aesthetic, and a minimal aesthetic, by definition, is not easy to succeed in. However, in Europe, we did have a fairly good political base. When George Macunias came, the European neo-dadaist aesthetic already occupied a major forum. So we could incorporate very quickly. American and European Fluxus both needed each other. Of course, Europe had its own idea, and its more aggressive attitude. It... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline