Emmett Williams 100th birthday

Emmett Williams, American poet and performance artist, was one of the founders of the Fluxus movement. Action art, poetry and music formed his oeuvre. His ‘Little Men’ brought Fluxus to Potsdam and moved into the museum for the opening on 21 April 2008.


Emmett Williams was born on 4 April 1925 in Greenville (South Carolina) and was one of the initiators of the Fluxus movement, which had a significant influence on art after 1945.

From 1957 to 1959, he worked in the Darmstadt Circle for Concrete Poetry and the Domaine Poétique in Paris. When George Maciunas' founding happening took place in Wiesbaden in 1962, Emmett Williams was there.

Fluxus was intended to combine forms of happenings and action art, poetry and music into a complete work and emphasise the fluid transition between art and life. From 1966 to 1970, Williams was editor-in-chief of the legendary ‘Something Else Press’ in New York. His poems and anthologies, especially on concrete poetry, are among the most important contributions in this field. His autobiographical work ‘My Life in Flux - and Vice Versa’ was published in 1992. In 1990, Emmett Williams was appointed President of the International Artists' Museum in Lodz and in 1996 was honoured with the Hannah Höch Prize of the Berlinische Galerie for his life's work.


Emmett Williams lived most of his life in Europe, most recently in Berlin with his wife, the artist Ann Noël. Emmett Williams died in Berlin in 2007 at the age of 81.


Steffi Weismann and Ariane Jeßulat performed many times with Emmett Williams and on 4 April 2025, together with Ann Noël, will present an approx. 45-minute programme consisting of selected poems, event scores and graphic notations (1958-2005) by Emmett Williams, partly with interactions with the audience. In addition, works by Williams from the collection will be on display in a newly conceived hanging in the permanent exhibition.


Event Emmett Williams 100th birthday at museum FLUXUS+

• Friday, 4 April 2025, 18:00, admission from 17:00
  
• Welcome and introduction: Tamás Blénessy, Managing Director and Heinrich Liman, Partner
  
• Admission is free, but due to the limited number of seats, registration is however, registration is requested! Please send a registration e-mail to info@fluxusplus.de.
  

Performing

Ariane Jeßulat, Ann Noël, Steffi Weismann

selected poems, event scores and graphic notations
(1958-2005) by Emmett Williams

• Meditation No. 1
  
• Son of Man Trio
  
• do you remember
  
• Song of indeterminate length
  
• Rousing Toast
  
• Genesis
  
• Four Directions Song of Doubt
  
• ABC Singspiel Simultaneity