*The Lunatics are on the Loose. European FLUXUS Festivals 1962–1977* is the first exhibition project documenting the festivals organized by the Fluxus art movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Fluxus artists and musicians caused a sensation with their radical and often shocking performances where they would destroy their musical instruments or incorporate ordinary, even trivial activities into their “Happenings”. The exponents of the Fluxus movement evaded the traditional perception of art, seeking new forms of expression and new ways of life by mingling several art forms (intermediality) and art disciplines – music, theatre, visual art and literature. In 1962, George Maciunas organized the first festival under the name “Fluxus”, *Fluxus –* *Internationale Festspiele neuester Musik* that combined music and performance. This event can be regarded as the actual establishment of the international Fluxus movement, a landmark in the development of experimental art and also the time when Fluxus became recognized worldwide. Although Prague was behind the Iron Curtain then, the city became an important centre of the movement’s activities. George Maciunas chose the Czech artist Milan Knížák to represent Fluxus in Eastern Europe, appointing him Director of Fluxus East.
*The Lunatics are on the Loose.* *European FLUXUS Festivals 1962–1977* exhibition is conceived as an interactive presentation that will guide the viewer through the history of Fluxus, via thirty-two documented important Fluxus festivals. The display also presents a digitalized archive accessible to visitors through iPad. The project was made possible through the collaborative efforts of art historians from all over Europe and is continually updated and expanded. The exhibition also includes hands-on installations where visitors themselves can perform Fluxus “pieces”.
*The* *Lunatics are on the Loose.* *European FLUXUS Festivals 1962–1977 e*xhibition project is the first extensive documentation of this remarkable artistic phenomenon presented in the Czech Republic. It is all the more noteworthy as Prague – although divided by the Iron Curtain in those days – was a prominent centre of the movement’s activities, a place where Fluxus was welcomed by a surprisingly broad audience and many artists.
The holding of the exhibition in the National Gallery in Prague has been made possible thanks to the kind support of the Czech-German Future Fund.
**Artists represented:**
Eric Andersen (DK), Philip Corner (US/IT), Geoffrey Hendricks (US), Bengt af Klintberg (SE), Milan Knížák (CZ), Alison Knowles (US), Jarosław Kozłowski (PL), Vytautas Landsbergis (LT), Larry Miller (US), Ann Noël (GB/DE), Ben Patterson (US/DE), Willem de Ridder (NL), Tamás St. Turba (HU/CH), Ben Vautier (CH/FR) and others.
**Curator: Petra Stegmann (DE)**
