Fluxus Futures, Ben Vautier's Signature Acts and the Historiography of the Avant-garde

Abstract

This essay reads Ben Vautier's signature work of the 1960s as a historiographical performance that questions the notion of the avant-garde as a tradition. Vautier challenges the notion that a continuous stream of new artists finds their place in relation to an historical progression established by avant-garde practices. Vautier puts the personal signature to uses that are both ridiculous and revolting, conjuring up a world of violent personal affects. At the same time, his uses of the signature transcend the realm of individual psychology. These signatures repeat the many signature acts of the avant-garde in an obsessive and abject way. Ultimately, they produce a notion of the avant-garde itself as one grand territorializing signature gesture that can equally be seen to sign nothing at all. Vautier's repetitions are representations of a series of early 1960s event works that open the very notion of an historical avant-garde to new determinations. This type of work also has ramifications for any discussion of "Fluxus after Fluxus."