FLUXLAND, IN FLUX FOR UTOPIA

A performance, a boat sculpture, a series of conferences

Fluxland is a new interactive artwork, sound piece and space for debate ideated by the artist Cyril de Commarque and launched for a programme of events in London on September 2016. The artist, who has exhibited at the MACRO in Rome and at the Venice Biennale, has created Fluxland from a former freight boat combined with a mirrored polyhedron sculptural form. 

The vessel travelled from north Holland to London where it navigated along the Thames through the city as a series of artistic performances, and eventually it moored in a location accessible to the public.  From here the boat moved to other locations as part of the performance featuring sound installations. A space for debate and discourse, Fluxland is a pioneering project which invites us to consider and interrogate notions of progress through the intersection of art, philosophy and science.

De Commarque’s Fluxland is the culmination of the exploration of the idea of progress over the last decade. The boat travelled from its docking in a Dutch shipyard to London where, in its new position, viewers were able to board and experience the immersive artwork. From its mooring in Imperial Wharf, Fluxland had several journeys over the course of a week down the Thames, reflecting the passing buildings across its angled facets, a mesmerising mirror of the city, accompanied by a sound performance. Viewers were able to watch these mesmerising journeys, and listen to the performances from the banks of the river. 

Fluxland takes its name from the Fluxus movement, an artistic revolution in the 1960s that sought to overturn the art  establishment and to break down the boundaries between art and life. Central to the movement is the idea  that art has the ability to advance and better society and that it should be accessible to all. De Commarque is inspired by Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys who stated that insert Beuys quote. The artist works with diverse media to explore both historical and contemporary conflicts and the capacity of philosophy to transcend and advance human existence. Fluxland takes the form of a polyhedron, a shape which since the age of the great ancient Greek philosophers have inspired philosophical and artistic contemplation. During the Renaissance polyhedra and the mastery of geometry and perspective became symbolic of profound philosophical and religious truths. Similarly, de Commarque’s polyhedron represents a space for meditation, thought, invention and reinvention.