A story of two Fluxus art collections - a discussion with Contemporary Art Center (CAC) director Kestutis Kuizinas

The first Fluxus collection was given to Lithuania by prominent U.S. collectors Gilbert and Lila Silverman in 1997. In 2007 the Municipal government bought the second and scandalously infamous Fluxus collection for 5 million US Dollars from the New York Lithuanian Jonas Mekas.

Kestutis Kuizinas remembers that when Gilbert and Lila Silverman came to Vilnius in 1996 they were surprised that there was not even a small collection by the American Lithuanian George Maciunas, who was a Fluxus pioneer. One year later, the curator of the Silverman collection Jon Hendricks selected and gave Lithuania a collection of about 100 pieces, which, starting 1997, have been consistently exhibited in the George Maciunas Fluxus Room established in the CAC in Vilnius. Jon Hendricks was involved in the Fluxus movement and interacted with George Maciunas, and has been the curator of the Silverman Fluxus Collection in MoMa in New York since 2009.

Interestingly, the New York resident and Lithuanian Jonas Mekas was never a real member of Fluxus and interacted with George Maciunas only as a fellow Lithuanian, but suddenly in 2007 he decided to sell Lithuania nearly 2500 Fluxus works that had belonged to George Maciunas for 5 million U.S. dollars. The purchase of this collection caused a scandal in Lithuania, which stretches from 2007 to the present, because until now an exhibition for the purchased collection has not yet been set up and nobody has seen the entire collection, which was supposed to be displayed in the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center in Vilnius (JMVMC), specially established by the Vilnius Municipal Government in 2007.

Still, Mr. Kuizinas claims that he is looking forward to the day when  it is possible to compare the two collections of Fluxus in Vilnius and see all of the large volume collection purchased from Jonas Mekas in 2007 in JMVMC. He has no doubt that Lithuania can be proud of the fact that the Lithuanian George Maciunas (1931-1978) was a founding member of Fluxus.