Wolf Vostell's <italic>Fluxus Zug</italic>, Model Museum, Academy, Archive

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes Wolf Vostell's Fluxus Zug, 1981, arguing that it was simultaneously a work of art, a museum, an academy, and an archive. I explore the art work/alternative institution in relation to other museums that Vostell conceived and realized from the 1960s until his death in 1998; the interdisciplinary collaborations that he established in the 1960s; his concept for an ideal academy from 1969; the archive that he began building in the 1950s; and recent theories of the Archive. This microhistorical study reveals Vostell's centrality to contemporary experimental art. I argue that the spirit of Vostell's art and ideas are very much alive today as artists demonstrate widespread interest in curating as an art practice, in the construction of alternative pedagogies, and in working in, with, and against the Archive.