Fire 1000 Poems! A Fluxus Happening in Hybrid Space
Hybrid Culture is Not Just Possible – It is Essential
Each art object and phenomenon exists in dialogue with all other art – past, present and future. Every artist is a part of this ongoing species conversation. The form and means of this conversation evolve along with us. Within our artistic language, we reimagine our world, and imagine a time and when those who are now possible – the multinational thieves, the corporate parasites, the guardians of their watchtowers – are nothing more than dark legends told as a cautionary tale.
Fire1000Poems! was conceived from its outset as a hybrid event that would take place in a live performance space – Theater HochX in Munich, Germany, but also on the web from Germany and the US. The organizing collective includes visual and sound artists, writers, actors, activists (including former political prisoners) and philosophers who are engaged in this ongoing project about prison and isolation as extensions of similar social trends in our society overall. This was originally conceived as a Fluxus style happening with a sense of evolving audience participation which would be video recorded each day and then interwoven into the following days’ performances. The first event was set to take place last November 3 for a live theater audience and livestreamed internationally. However, COVID meant the closure of the theater to live audiences. Instead, we used the theater to stage video broadcast performances of music, theater and our video discussions. Pods of contributors were brought to the stage and the web via Zoom video feeds on large screen monitors. We embraced the challenge of embarking on a new way of presenting theater that blurs the lines between audience and actors, virtual and face-to-face, past and present, art and action.
After our time at Theater HochX, we continued to evolve the project with ongoing panel discussions and performances based on the themes, “Is a true political art possible, and what does it look/sound like?” and “How do we connect authentically as human beings in virtual culture?”
Busy Hominid 