ROBERT FILLIOU Sauve, 1926 - Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, 1987.
Artista concettuale, perfomer e scrittore, Filliou studia economia e scienze alla University of California di Los Angeles dal 1948 al 1951, mentre esplora l’arte da autodidatta. Dopo avere lavorato come drammaturgo durante la seconda metà degli anni Cinquanta, nel 1960 presenta la prima delle sue performances poetiche. Nel 1962 aderisce al movimento Fluxus, condividendo con i suoi compagni l'avversione per gli oggetti dell'arte commerciale. Non solo continua a realizzare performances e altri lavori effimeri ma si dedica ad azioni concettuali come la fondazione di una "République Géniale", realizza film e video, invia per posta oggetti enigmatici come forma di arte di corrispondenza e lavora in collettivo contro le idee tradizionali sull'individualità dell'artista. Nel 1964 crea insieme a Joachim Pfeufer il Poïpoïdrome, un centro di ricerca della "creazione permanente" e del "principio di equivalenza".
Nel 1965, insieme a George Brecht, fonda La Cédille Qui Sourit, uno studio-negozio a Villefranche-sur-mer. Nella sua opera utilizza una larga varietà di materiali e si considera libero di esplorare tutte le forme: per esempio, quella presa da un suo lavoro è un enorme dipinto di quasi quattro metri, Research into the Origin (1974) [Ricerca sulle origini], nel quale, in una scrittura a mano con note e rimandi, include una moltitudine di referenze e citazioni da studi scientifici che dimostrano la necessità della "creazione permanente".
Filliou ha detto:"Non sono solo interessato all’arte ma alla società della quale l’arte è un aspetto. Sono interessato al mondo come a un tutto, un tutto del quale la società è una parte. Sono interessato all’universo del quale il mondo è solo un frammento. Sono innanzitutto interessato alla Creazione Costante della quale l’universo è soltanto un prodotto”.
Per lui l’attività artistica era un modo di azione diretta sul mondo. Filliou ha tentato di integrare tutti gli atti della vita con l’impegno artistico, "senza preoccuparsi del fatto che le opere siano distribuite o no": "Quando fai è arte, quando finisci è non arte, quando esibisci è antiarte”.
traduzione di Sergio Ghirardi
Artiste conceptuel, performeur et écrivain, Filliou étudie l’économie et les sciences à l’Université de Californie à Los Angeles (1948/51).
Son exploration de l’art se fait en autodidacte. Après avoir travaillé comme dramaturge pendant la seconde moitié des années cinquante, il présente, en 1960, une première performance poétique. En 1962 il adhère au mouvement Fluxus et partage avec ses compagnons l’aversion pour les objets de l’art commercial. Il continue, ensuite à réaliser des performances et d’autres œuvres mais il se dédie aussi à des actions conceptuelles comme la fondation d’une « République Géniale », la réalisation de films et vidéos, l’envoi par la poste de sujets énigmatiques comme une forme d’art de correspondance et il travaille collectivement contre les idées traditionnelles sur l’individualité de l’artiste.
En 1964 il crée avec Joachim Pfeufer le Poïpoïdrome, centre de recherche de la « création permanente » et du « principe d’équivalence ». En 1965, avec George Brecht, fonde La Cédille Qui Sourit, centre d’études et galerie à Villefranche-sur-mer. Dans son œuvre, il utilise une large variété de matériaux et il se considère libre d’explorer toutes les formes : par exemple celle d’un très grand tableau de presque quatre mètres, Research into the Origin (1974) [Recherche sur les origines], où, par un griffonnage à la main avec notes et renvois, il inclut une multitude de références et de citations tirées d’études scientifiques qui montrent la nécessité de la « création permanente ».
Filliou a dit: “Je ne suis pas uniquement intéressé par l’art mais par la société dont l’art est une expression. Je suis intéressé par le monde comme un tout, un tout dont la société est une partie. Je suis intéressé par l’univers dont le monde n’est qu’un fragment. Je suis surtout intéressé par la Création Constante dont l’univers n’est qu’un produit ».
Pour lui l’activité artistique était un moyen d’action directe sur le monde. Filliou a essayé d’intégrer tous les actes de la vie à l’expression artistique « sans se soucier que les œuvres soient distribuées ou pas ».
« Quand tu fais, c’est de l’art, quand tu termines, c’est du non art, quand tu exhibes, c’est de l’anti-art ».
Filliou said "I am not just interested in art, but in society of which art is one aspect. I am interested in the world as a whole, a whole of which society is one part. I am interested in the universe, of which the world is only one fragment. I am interested primarily in the Constant Creation of which the universe is only one product." For him, the work of art was a means of direct action on the world. Filliou attempted to integrate all the acts in life with artistic duty, "without worrying about whether the works are distributed or not": "When you make, it is art, when you finish, it is non-art, when you exhibit, it is anti-art."“
Robert Filliou was part of the Resistance movement organized by the communists and became a member of the French Communist Party during the war; he worked as a labourer for Coca Cola in Los Angeles; achieved a masters in economics; had a dual French-American nationality; while working as a United Nations advisor he was sent to Korea for three years to help write the Constitution and take part in the programmes for economic reconstruction of the country; from there, he travelled in the Far East; he lived in Egypt, Spain and Denmark, where he met Marianne Staffels, the woman with whom he would share his life and his artistic activity. This exceedingly accomplished man and world traveller was not attached to any country. He said about : "nationality : poet, profession : French".
In 1960, Robert Filliou designed his first visual work, Le Collage de l'immortelle mort du monde [Collage of the Immortal Death of the World], a transcription of a random theatre play comparable to a chessboard on which all sorts of individual experiences are expressed 3. In 1961, at the Addi Kôcpke gallery (Copenhagen), his first personal exhibition, Suspens Poems, was organized, made up of poems in the form of postal dispatches.In 1962, determined to remain outside the exhibition circuit, Robert Filliou carried his gallery in his hat. He became his own exhibition space: "La Galerie Légitime" [The Legitimate Gallery]. His works, gathered together in his beret and stamped "Galerie Légitime Couvre Chef d'Oeuvre" [Legitimate Gallery Masterpiece Hat], circulated in the streets with him (the idea is reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp's suitcase). He then met George Maciunas, the centralizer of the activities of Fluxus. "La Galerie Légitime" invited several artists to exhibit in it. This was an art made up of attitudes and gestures, rather than saleable works.
In 1963, with the architect Joachim Pfeufer, he created the Poïpoïdrome 4 project, a meeting place and centre for "Permanent Creation" located at the crossroads between two currents: action and reflection. There was nothing to "learn" in order to participate: what the users knew was enough. In 1965, with George Brecht, Robert Filliou founded the gallery "La Cédille qui sourit" 5 [The Smiling Cedilla) in Villefranche-sur-Mer, although it was usually closed because the artists were at the local café: "In my opinion, that's where you get your best ideas". They then founded "Eternal Network, La Fête Permanente" [Eternal Network, The Constant Festival]: "The artist must be aware that he is part of a larger social network, part of the "Constant Festival" which surrounds him everywhere and elsewhere in the world."
After the filmographical experiments of "La Cédille qui sourit", he made Hommage à Méliès [Hommage to Méliès] with George Brecht and Bob Guiny to express their delight in their wonderment at the simplicity of the old silent films and, with Emmett Williams, Double Happening, Contribution for Happening & Fluxus, a performance staged in the women's toilets at the Dusseldorf Academy of Fine Arts. with the König publishing company in Cologne, he published a "pluri-book", Teaching and Learning as Performing Arts: happenings, events, action poetry, environments, visual poetry, films, street theatre, non-instrumental music, games, exchanges of letters, etc.
In 1971, he created "la République géniale" [the Republic of Genius]: people enter its territory to develop their genius rather than their talent. Research is no longer the privileged domain of the person who knows, but of the person who does not know. In Le Petit Robert Filliou, he defined, among other things, the principles of Poetic Economics for which a scale of values had to be worked out.
His films are above all made of humour, derision and random elements, closely linked to the spirit of Fluxus. On January 17th 1973, with the idea of uniting people of all times, he celebrated the 1,000,010th Anniversary of Art at the Neue Galerie der Stadt in Aachen. "Art must return to the people to which it belongs." As 10 years had gone by since Filliou had begun his "Histoire chuchotée de l'art" [Whispered History of Art], 1,000,010 years corresponded to the arbitrary date of Man's appearance on Earth. The artist was working on the search for the origin and proposed a new concept, "The Prebiological Genius".
In 1977, Robert Filliou was living in Canada, where he made several videos. It was not the medium itself which interested him. The artist, who never worried about creating "works of art", chose any material as long as it conveyed his ideas and thoughts, and as long as it linked the territories of geniuses one to the other. It was in this sense that he used video, not only to keep a record of his performances as many artists have been doing since the 1960s: "To contact the audience that we want, I think it's video that will do it".
He imagined a "Video-Universe-City" 6 project as a means of propagating Constant Creation.
With his wife Marianne, Robert Filliou withdrew for 3 years 3 months and 3 days to a Buddhist centre at Les Eyzies in the Dordogne (France). In 1987, he produced his last work, Time is a Nutshell, made up of several walnuts emptied so that they could contain a few words. in December 2nd, Robert Filliou died, like a Buddhist, after seeking enlightenment through the texts of the Veda and through Fluxus.
