BEN VAUTIER, Fourre-Tout No. 3, 1968
CONTENU DE L’ENVELOPPE
18,9 x 17,4 cm includes all objects, as issued
printed matter and objects in plastic envelope with hand numbered sticker
stamp numbered, here number 00016
6 parts and 1 printed list of contents with felt pen hand drawing of a bocal
edition 100
not available anymore
In an accompanying text of this issue it is announced by Ben and Annie (Noël) that “Fourre-tout” number 3 will be the last one. It is explained that ‘The content of this jar is learning us to admit everything. It reads the idea through the object.’
Issues number 1 and 2 were published in 1967 in an edition 250 each. A copy of issue number 3 is in the collection of the MoMA in New York, USA. The museum has one of the 100 glass jars in its collection that accompanies this periodical with an edition of 100 (+ 1 larger ‘jar’ with original manuscripts), although archived separately from its publication.
Complete content of original plastic envelope “Contenu de l’enveloppe”:
KEN FRIEDMAN – print with ink stamped text: Friedman’zart
HENRY FLYNT – print: Overthrow the Human Race!!
BEN VAUTIER – cut page with pencil drawn circles (recto verso) from paperback book
BEN VAUTIER – punched postcard called There might be an aeroplane in the sky of this tiny postcard
ERIC ANDERSSON [sic] – Tape piece, 3 tiny cards with texts/instruction + loose piece of tape
BEN VAUTIER/GEORGE MACIUNAS ? – small Fluxus bag with paste called A medicine for the asthma of Maciunas
Nota bene: This issue No. 3 is complete, although a glass jar the index is referring to as CONTENU DU BOCAL is lacking.
Extra information
Copy edition number 40/100 in the collection of the MoMa, New York. The glass jar with cork that is part of the publication has been archived by the museum separately.
BEN VAUTIER, Fourre-Tout, No. 3, 1968
glass jar, label, felt-tip pen ink, cork, various objects
10,2 x 5,1 cm
being part of periodical
published by Ben and Anne Vautier
Collection MoMA, New York, USA
BEN VAUTIER, Mon admiration pour votre Oeuvre, 1966 / Nice, le 13 Mars
21,5 x 16,5 cm
letterpress print on firm paper
Fluxus announcement / event with an artist statement in French
dated in print: ’13 March, 1966′
Part of the text reads roughly in French: Dear
I would like to express my admiration for your work.
Since Dada in 1920,
the ready-made of Duchamp
the supertemporal of Isou
and the indeterminacy of Cage
and since all that I have taken possession of
is art everywhere:
to wait for someone
to listen to a fly
to move the left arm
to draw a 1 cm line every day.
So the smallest detail, or even the title of the greatest, contains art.
All old conditions for harmony, work, quality, aesthetics have been wiped out.
Everything is art, and it is within the framework of this really everything that you knew how to insert it into your oeuvre.
…..
BEN VAUTIER / LA MONTE YOUNG, text, stencil on paper, 1960-1966
26,8 x 21,1 cm
edition unknown
published by Ben Vautier
This publication is apparently part of the newsletters Ben Vautier sent out in the sixties. First there is an introduction by Ben on contemporary music being influenced by music from other cultures. He pleads with the reader to extend of what music should be by creating music with constructions, themes or melodies. Hence the title of this stencil A sole note will do.
In the second part he presents “Composition 1960 #7” by La Monte Young and in the last part Ben Vautier presents a similar composition called “Crescendo” from July 1963.
BEN VAUTIER, Mensonges [tr. lies], ca 1962 – 1963
21,4 x 16,5 cm
ink stamp and stencil print on paper
published by the artist
inv.BVau 1013
This is a list of works with dates of creation, apparently meant as lies. The title of the works refer to an exhibition that took place in Vautier’s Fluxus shop ‘La cédille qui sourit’ in Nice, France.
BEN VAUTIER, Crisis and Nervous Depression, ca 1962-1963
11,4 x 10,1 cm / 4.6 x 3.9 inches
Fluxus announcement of event (to be filled in), black letterpress on thin paper
edition unknown
published by Total Art Gallery, Nice, France
condition: aged
rare
€ 385,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.BVau 1014
This statement of Ben Vautier is printed on very thin paper and a good example of his self-mockery he so often showed in his works: Ben, is so much of a true failure and a shabby fool, crying to be great, that he has had enough of it all.
A copy of this item is in the collection of the Walker Art Center in New York, USA and in the collection of Fondazione Bonotto, Colceresa, Italy.
