In my early twenties, people often called me a real artist after seeing my works. I would reply that they had nothing to do with art. As a bachelor of classical art history and a bourgeois admirer of traditional art, I found it hard to agree with the idea—commonly voiced about contemporary artists—that they possessed a special kind of genius. At the beginning of my thirties, I completely changed my ideas and perceptions about art and who could be an artist. This change is associated with getting to know movements like Fluxus and their ideas, which challenged the elitist notions of art that I valued at the time. The name "Fluxus," meaning "flow" or "current" in both Latin and English, symbolized their mission: to dissolve the boundaries between art and life, making art accessible to everyone. Rejecting the exclusivity of the art world, they embraced spontaneity, arbitrariness, and the belief that anyone could be an artist, reshaping what art could mean.

Fluxus was an international group of artists, including thinkers, painters, composers, performers, and designers, who formed in the late 1950s. They focused mainly on performance art. The group took the name Fluxus in 1962. Their experiments lasted from the early 1960s to the late 1970s. Fluxus artists helped redefine art for the next half century.

Fluxus artists broke down traditional aesthetic boundaries and explored new ones. As a unified group, they maintained each artist's individuality while working together. Even though their ideas often contradicted each other, they were still able to function as one. We can think of them as the "heirs" of Dada, always opposing tradition and creating something new. They believed anyone could be an artist. You didn’t have to sit quietly behind the scenes anymore—everyone could be part of the artistic process.

One of Fluxus' founders, George Maciunas, aimed to rid the world of "bourgeois disease." He wanted to challenge the deceptive nature of art by rejecting traditional aesthetics. For Maciunas, Fluxus was anti-art. He showed that anyone could take part in art and be an artist themselves, such as when, during a Fluxus presentation by Yoko Ono and John Lennon, he gave the audience masks of their faces. This action showed that the audience wasn't just watching; they were also part of the art.

Not all Fluxus artists shared Maciunas' radical views. Ben Vautier’s work “Matchbox of All Art” called for destroying old art, believing that its existence hindered progress.

Fluxus artists included Joseph Beuys, George Brecht, John Keil, Robert Filliou, Al Hansen, Dick Higgins, Bengt Klintberg, Alison Knowles, Adi Koepke, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Ben Patterson, Daniel Spoerri, and Wolf Vostell. I’m particularly interested in John Cage, one of the movement's most influential figures. Cage was an American composer, music theorist, artist, and philosopher. He was a pioneer of non-deterministic music and used instruments in unconventional ways. Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, where the orchestra remained silent for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. The piece highlighted the sounds made by the audience, making them co-artists in the performance.

Cage’s “experimental composition” classes at the New School helped shape Fluxus in America. His students, including Jackson MacLow, Alan Kaprow, Al Hansen, George Brecht, and Dick Higgins, were often artists with little or no musical training. Cage believed that theater was the most human form of art. He used theater to integrate art into real life, which led to the term “happening,” coined by his student Alan Kaprow.

One key event I find interesting is “9 Evenings,” held in October 1966 in Murray Hill, New Jersey. This event combined art and technology in a way that foreshadowed digital exhibitions. Artists, musicians, choreographers, and engineers worked together on an experiment where movements were recorded using Doppler sonar and transformed into sound. This innovative mix of technology and art helped lay the foundation for digital art.

John Cage also created a groundbreaking work in 1969 based on Marshall McLuhan’s After Gutenberg’s Galaxy. Cage used the sounds of a computer keyboard as musical elements. This work further linked technology and art, showing that tools of the digital age could become instruments of creative expression.

John Cage can be considered the avantgarde of the avantgarde. His unconventional views and non-stereotypical approach helped shape Fluxus and modern art.

Fluxus was not about introspection or searching for the artist within. It rejected the idea that being an artist was a privilege. It said there were no special rules or dogmas. The key was to free ourselves from prejudice. Art should not be distant or isolated; it should be created through empathy with others and be accessible to all.