Milan Knížák
Processes Mainly for the Mind (Written Records of Some Events from Years 1977-1981)
Artist
Milan Knížák
(1940, Plzeň), Czech
Original Title
Processes Mainly for the Mind (Written Records of Some Events from Years 1977-1981)
Date1977-1981
Mediumauthor's book – print on paper and metal staples (8 pages + cover)
Dimensions20,5 × 14,5 cm
ClassificationsFlux Papers
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha (Marie and Milan Knížák Fluxus Collection)
DescriptionMilan Knížák is an internationally renowned Czech artist whose practice incorporates a wide range of mediums and whose influence transcends the art world. He was a member of the international Fluxus movement and in 1965 was named director of the movement’s Eastern European division. In the early 1960s, Knížák produced numerous ephemeral site-specific projects. His street performances, exhibitions, and happenings from his time in the art group Aktuální umění, founded in 1964 and later renamed to Aktual (1966-1973), significantly differed from the staged happenings of Western artists. Knížák’s happenings did not unfold according to a pre-prepared script. The human body played a vital role, representing the primary link to reality. To an extent, the happenings are based on engaging with a random, non-preselected audience and on a playful invigoration of mundane activities. Their purpose was to bridge the division between art and social life, and to intervene in the physical and spiritual environment of each individual. In this approach, art is not merely an artifact but a process with a playful and spiritually didactic function. During the 1970s, Knížák’s work underwent a significant dematerialization and conceptualization. By mailing manuals, instructions, and appeals, Knížák also aligned himself with the mail art wave of the 1970s, His broad interest in art also led him to explore fashion design. Clothing also played an important role in his happenings, during which he would burn it or paint it onto human bodies. Fashion, clothing collages, and fabric paintings also paved the way for his assemblage fabric canvases of the 1980s, Knížák’s later paintings and object are marked by postmodernist eclecticism, experimenting with kitsch aesthetics and quotations of other painters’ works, through which he conveyed his ironic commentaries on contemporary society.
This artist’s book titled Processes Mainly for the Mind, with the subtitle written records of some actions from the years 1977–1981, dates from the period after Knížák returned from the USA in 1970. It was part of his samizdat publishing activities, with some 500 pieces printed. Knížák’s work during the 1970s was impacted by the political process of Normalization, which significantly shaped the overall social and cultural life in Czechoslovakia. The violent suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968 and the consequent implementation of Normalization politics meant that upon his arrival, he found a society that was more repressed, controlled, and generally less free than when he had Czechoslovakia. Hence, Knížák found himself in isolation from the artist community and simultaneously without the ability to organize further Keeping Together Days in collaboration with Ken Friedman or to participate in the activities of the Aktual art group. Between 1972 and 1973, he even spent several months in prison. The petition for Knížák’s release, initiated by members of the international Fluxus movement and signed by renowned artists such as Allan Kaprow and Harald Szeemann, demonstrated the strong personal and professional ties he had created while living abroad. This small book illustrates the shift in Knížák’s artistic activities at the time. Its title links it to his actions, and some of the processes it described had actually been realized. Nevertheless, they were primarily intended as mental actions or actions in the mind, with many having a strong resemblance to concentration and meditation techniques, adopted from yoga, which he explored after returning from the USA. While Knížák had undertaken some of the actions included in the book—such as Material Events (1977) and Forced Symbioses (1977)—in real life, here, they primarily function as impulses for thought, for action in the mind. His focus on dematerialized artistic processes during this time also led him to create objects with an imaginary ritual function—these are not themselves the remnants of real rituals, instead simply providing inspiration for them and “creating space for contemplating the function and ritual function of the object” (Milan Knížák, Nový ráj (New Heaven), Prague 1996, n. p.).
List of actions featured:
Material events (1977)
Forced symbiosy (1977)
Familiarization (1977)
The White Process (1977)
Negation (1977)
Equalities (1977)
Newnesses (1978)
The White Process (1977)
Negation (1977)
Equalities (1977)
Newsnesses (1978)
Idea (process, 1978)
The Process of Anti-Creation (October–November, 1978)
Dwelling (January, February 1979)
Human (1979)
1/2 (1965–1980)
Processes for the Mind and a Bit of Reality (1981)
Crimson readymade (1981)
Conceptual assemblages (1981)
Milan Knížák (*1940, Pilsen) lives and works in Prague. In 1958, he was admitted to a foundation year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague but was expelled after one year. After completing his mandatory military service, Knížák worked as a cleaner. He later returned to study at the Academy of Fine Arts between 1963 and 1964, but never finished his studies. In the 1960s, he organized several notable performances in Prague’s public space, operating both alone (A Demonstration for All the Senses, 1964; A Demonstration for One, 1964) and with other members of the Aktual art group. In 1966, he organized the Fluxus Festival together with Ben Vautier and Jeff Berner; from the same year onward, he was identified by the Communist State Security as a hostile figure. From 1968 to 1970, he stayed in the USA having been invited by fellow Fluxus members. After returning to Czechoslovakia, he was tracked and prosecuted by the State Security. In 1974, he received the DAAD scholarship, but was only allowed to leave for Berlin five years later, from 1979 to 1980. From 1990 to 1997, Knížák was the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he also led the Studio of Intermedia Work from 1990 to 2016. He was also the director of the National Gallery Prague from 1999 to 2011. He has lectured at numerous domestic and international universities and has also published several books. Knížák’s art has been shown in a range of solo and group exhibitions in the Czech Republic and abroad. His work is included in the collections of many important institutions, both Czech and international, including the National Gallery Prague, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Sprengel Museum Hannover, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Tate Modern in London.
This artist’s book titled Processes Mainly for the Mind, with the subtitle written records of some actions from the years 1977–1981, dates from the period after Knížák returned from the USA in 1970. It was part of his samizdat publishing activities, with some 500 pieces printed. Knížák’s work during the 1970s was impacted by the political process of Normalization, which significantly shaped the overall social and cultural life in Czechoslovakia. The violent suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968 and the consequent implementation of Normalization politics meant that upon his arrival, he found a society that was more repressed, controlled, and generally less free than when he had Czechoslovakia. Hence, Knížák found himself in isolation from the artist community and simultaneously without the ability to organize further Keeping Together Days in collaboration with Ken Friedman or to participate in the activities of the Aktual art group. Between 1972 and 1973, he even spent several months in prison. The petition for Knížák’s release, initiated by members of the international Fluxus movement and signed by renowned artists such as Allan Kaprow and Harald Szeemann, demonstrated the strong personal and professional ties he had created while living abroad. This small book illustrates the shift in Knížák’s artistic activities at the time. Its title links it to his actions, and some of the processes it described had actually been realized. Nevertheless, they were primarily intended as mental actions or actions in the mind, with many having a strong resemblance to concentration and meditation techniques, adopted from yoga, which he explored after returning from the USA. While Knížák had undertaken some of the actions included in the book—such as Material Events (1977) and Forced Symbioses (1977)—in real life, here, they primarily function as impulses for thought, for action in the mind. His focus on dematerialized artistic processes during this time also led him to create objects with an imaginary ritual function—these are not themselves the remnants of real rituals, instead simply providing inspiration for them and “creating space for contemplating the function and ritual function of the object” (Milan Knížák, Nový ráj (New Heaven), Prague 1996, n. p.).
List of actions featured:
Material events (1977)
Forced symbiosy (1977)
Familiarization (1977)
The White Process (1977)
Negation (1977)
Equalities (1977)
Newnesses (1978)
The White Process (1977)
Negation (1977)
Equalities (1977)
Newsnesses (1978)
Idea (process, 1978)
The Process of Anti-Creation (October–November, 1978)
Dwelling (January, February 1979)
Human (1979)
1/2 (1965–1980)
Processes for the Mind and a Bit of Reality (1981)
Crimson readymade (1981)
Conceptual assemblages (1981)
Milan Knížák (*1940, Pilsen) lives and works in Prague. In 1958, he was admitted to a foundation year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague but was expelled after one year. After completing his mandatory military service, Knížák worked as a cleaner. He later returned to study at the Academy of Fine Arts between 1963 and 1964, but never finished his studies. In the 1960s, he organized several notable performances in Prague’s public space, operating both alone (A Demonstration for All the Senses, 1964; A Demonstration for One, 1964) and with other members of the Aktual art group. In 1966, he organized the Fluxus Festival together with Ben Vautier and Jeff Berner; from the same year onward, he was identified by the Communist State Security as a hostile figure. From 1968 to 1970, he stayed in the USA having been invited by fellow Fluxus members. After returning to Czechoslovakia, he was tracked and prosecuted by the State Security. In 1974, he received the DAAD scholarship, but was only allowed to leave for Berlin five years later, from 1979 to 1980. From 1990 to 1997, Knížák was the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he also led the Studio of Intermedia Work from 1990 to 2016. He was also the director of the National Gallery Prague from 1999 to 2011. He has lectured at numerous domestic and international universities and has also published several books. Knížák’s art has been shown in a range of solo and group exhibitions in the Czech Republic and abroad. His work is included in the collections of many important institutions, both Czech and international, including the National Gallery Prague, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Sprengel Museum Hannover, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Tate Modern in London.
