Tue 3 Sep 2019 to Sat 1 Feb 2020
77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX Sense Sound/Sound Sense. Fluxus Music, Scores & Records in the Luigi Bonotto Collection
Tue-Sun 11am-6pm, Thur 11am-9pm
Sense Sound, (1955) 1989
Silkscreen on cloth
1620.0 × 1400.0 mm
Published by Francesco Conz, Verona. Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto & Ann Noël. Copyright © Emmett Williams. All Rights Reserved.
Performed by George Maciunas and other Fluxus artists at “Festum Fluxorum”, Dusseldorf, 1963
Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto
Miniature Soft Drum Set, (1967) 1969
380.0 × 510.0 × 300.0 mm
Edition published by Multiple Inc. N.Y. Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto
Silkscreen on cloth
1420.0 × 1010.0 mm
Published by Francesco Conz, Verona 1988. Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto
Performance by B. Vautier, G. Hendricks, Al Hensen and K. Friedman at “Milano Poesia”, Ansaldo Milan, 1989
Photo: F. Garghetti. Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto
Score card version, black offset on white card
120.0 × 155.0 mm
Included in “Water Yam”, Fluxus Editions, 1963. Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto
B/w photo at Café au Go Go, New York, 1965 by P. Moore, edited by Pari & Dispari Editori, Cavriago, 1989-90
Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto
White candles in a violin case
180.0 × 190.0 × 360.0 mm
Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto
From The Thousand Symphonies, 1968. Mixed media on music paper
445.0 × 575.0 mm
Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto
Artist’s book, published by Fluxpress, New York
105.0 × 275.0 mm
Courtesy of Foundazione Bonotto
Performed by Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles during the “Parallele Aufführungen Neuester Musik” at Kunsthandel Monet, Amsterdam, 1962. Photo: Hans De Boer
240.0 × 150.0 mm
Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto
Jajajajaja,Neeneeneeneenee, (1968) 1970
12” vinyl record
published by Gabriele Mazzotta Editore, Milan
Courtesy of Fondazione Bonotto
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How should we use a grand piano in order to produce sound? By opening the piano and stacking wooden blocks inside the instrument until one falls and creates a noise, or by dropping dried beans onto the keys? Conceptual fluxus artist George Brecht (1926–2008), in one of his iconic works Incidental Music, instructed fellow artists to demonstrate how several people at once could interact with the piano.
The Fluxus movement emerged in the 1960s as an international network of artists, musicians and performers who staged experimental happenings using everyday materials. They shared an attitude to creativity that was anti-academic, quotidian and open to all.
Including works by John Cage, Philip Corner, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, George Maciunas, Claes Oldenburg and Yoko Ono Sense Sound/Sound Sense investigates Fluxus artists’ interest in music and sound through performance, scores, records and objects from the Luigi Bonotto Collection. Fluxus artists assigned importance to musical production, presenting public events as concerts that challenged conventional form and content in music. Their approach to music scores was equally radical. Breaking free from traditional sheet music, they devised notational systems based on graphics, poetry and the visual arts.
Sense Sound/Sound Sense was produced and first shown at Fondazione Musica per Roma, Auditorium – Parco della Musica Roma
This is the first UK display of the Luigi Bonotto collection, the largest collection of UK documents in Italy.