Fluxus East

Eric Andersen

Eric Andersen developed an interest in intermedia art very early on (as from 1959). In his Opus works from the early 60s, he investigated primarily the open interaction between performer and audience. He developed open works, works that altered themselves, “arte strumentale”. In November 1962, for the first time, he participated in a Fluxus concert at the Festum Fluxorum in the Nikolai Kirke, Copenhagen, and in subsequent years he was involved in a number of Fluxus festivals and actions. From 1962 to 1966, he cooperated closely with Arthur Köpcke. In the late 1960s, Andersen was active in Mail Art, and since the 1970s he has devoted much of his work to an investigation of geographical space. His most important works include Hidden Paintings, Crying Spaces, Confession Kitchens, Lawns that turn towards the Sun and Artificial Stars. For Copenhagen”s celebrations as the “Cultural Capital of Europe” in 1996, he staged a large-scale, three-day intermedia event with parachuting, helicopters, mountain climbing, live sheep and 500 singers walking on water.

His extended tour of Central and Eastern Europe in 1964 is legendary; this gave local artists and musicians in many places their first contact with Fluxus. Together with his brother Tony Andersen, Andersen performed in private apartments and night clubs, and distributed scores and printed matter. In Warsaw, he wrote a composition for Polish Radio (Opus 52). Andersen sent postcards from this trip to Maciunas, providing imaginary reports of scandalous performances, which he claimed to have given together with Emmett Williams, Tomas Schmit and Arthur Köpcke. As a consequence, Maciunas “excommunicated” the four artists. Together with Arthur Köpcke and Tomas Schmit, Andersen appeared before a large audience at a three-day festival in the Prague jazz club Reduta in April 1966. From the mid 1970s onwards, he participated in numerous exhibitions in Poland, e.g. in the Galeria Akumulatory 2, Poznań; Piwna 20/26, Warsaw; Galeria Krzysztofory and Galeria Potocka, both in Cracow.