Our new book, Activating Fluxus, Expanding Conservation, is here!
This is the first book to address the care and preservation of Fluxus works, reimagining the afterlife of Fluxus by positioning conservation as an evolving, interpretive, and generative framework.
Fluxus radically transformed artistic practice by challenging the entrenched preconception that artworks endure, unchanged and confined to a singular physical manifestation. Moving beyond conventional, object-based approaches, this interdisciplinary volume brings together artists, scholars, conservators and curators from diverse cultural and theoretical perspectives to explore how the ephemeral, participatory and intermedial forms of Fluxus demand an expanded vision of conservation—one grounded in activation. By reframing conservation as a critical, decolonial and creative inquiry, Activating Fluxus, Expanding Conservation redefines Fluxus as a living force continually remade through acts of care, interpretation and participation. It ultimately calls for a fundamental shift in how we preserve, interpret and transmit the experimental art practices of the recent past.
Offering fresh ways to engage with the legacy of Fluxus through the intersecting lenses of conservation, art history, performance studies and museology, this book will appeal to academics and students across these fields, as well as to curators and practitioners invested in the futures of contemporary art.
Co-edited by Josephine Ellis, Aga Wielocha and Hanna B. Hölling, and including contributions by 24 authors, this book presents a major output of the research project Activating Fluxus (SNSF, 2022-26).
Authors: Eric Andersen, Bengt af Klintberg, Kit Brooks, Philip Corner, Josephine Ellis, Ken Friedman, Marcus Gossolt, Johannes M. Hedinger, Hannah B Higgins, Maggie Hire, Rasmus Holmboe, Danielle Johnson, Magnus Kaslov, Sally Kawamura, Kate Lewis, Ann Noël, Émilie Parendeau, Patrizio Peterlini, Peter Oleksik, Mieko Shiomi, Inbal Strauss, Ben Vautier, and Aga Wielocha,
Hardcover of the book is available for purchase via this link: https://www.routledge.com/Activating-Fluxus-Expanding-Conservation/Holl….
The Open Access version of this book, available at Taylor and Francis (or by following the link on the right hand side), has been made available thanks to the Swiss National Science Foundation Book Grant.
The presentation of the book will take place during Activations: A Fluxus Symposium, on February 27, 2026, 14:45 CET, at HKB Bern and online.