{"id":50897,"date":"2022-04-21T14:31:11","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T18:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=50897"},"modified":"2022-05-01T09:14:35","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T13:14:35","slug":"ben-vautiers-cry-from-the-heart-what-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2022\/04\/ben-vautiers-cry-from-the-heart-what-to-do.html","title":{"rendered":"Ben Vautier: ‘What to Do?’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Ben Vautier<\/a><\/em> (2013)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The noted Nice-based Fluxus writer and artist Ben Vautier sends out a message, regularly by email, to friends and others. But the one that came the other day was unusual. Rather <\/em>than simply conveying news of cultural and artistic events that personally interest him, it was something of a cris de coeur<\/em>. Translated into English from his typically direct French prose, which he versifies, it began this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

because I don't know what to do anymore.\nMy head doesn't work anymore\nMy thoughts are jumping around\nI can't focus them\nWhat to do?\nWhat can I do to make Annie\ntell me, \"I love you\"?\nWhat to do to be Fluxus?<\/em>\n\nCULTURE WAR<\/strong>\n\nA possible thermonuclear war?\nthe news on TV\nI said to myself\nthey are crazy these egos\nthey go straight to the catastrophe\nis it possible or not?\nthey will not be\nnot be crazy enough <\/em>\nto bomb Nice\nParis Moscow ok\nbut not Nice\nand then why not?\nif the ego of the people\nmatches the ego of their leaders\nthey will bomb everything\nlike children at the beach\nplaying with their sand castle<\/em> . . . \n\nThis is from the French original:<\/strong>\n\ncar je ne sais plus quoi faire.\nMa t\u00eate ne marche plus\nMes pens\u00e9es sautillent\nJe n\u2019arrive pas \u00e0 les fixer\nQue faire ?\nQue faire pour qu\u2019Annie\nme dise \u00abJe t\u2019aime\u00bb?\nQue faire pour \u00eatre Fluxus ?\n\nCULTURE GUERRE<\/strong>\n\nUne guerre thermonucl\u00e9aire possible ?\nles nouvelles \u00e0 la t\u00e9l\u00e9\nje me suis dit\nils sont fous ces egos\nils vont droit vers la catastrophe\nest-ce possible ou pas ?\nils ne seront quand m\u00eame\npas assez fous pour\nbombarder Nice\nParis Moscou d\u2019accord\nmais pas Nice\net puis pourquoi pas ?\ns\u2019il y a l\u2019ego des peuples\navec l\u2019ego de leurs chefs\nils bombarderont tout\ncomme des enfants \u00e0 la plage\njouant avec leur ch\u00e2teau de sable . . .\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The noted Nice-based Fluxus writer and artist Ben Vautier sends out a message, regularly by email, to friends and others. But the one that came the other day was unusual. Rather than simply conveying news of cultural and artistic events that personally interest him, it was something of a ‘cris de coeur.’ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":50912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,18,4,20,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-50897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-literature","9":"category-main","10":"category-media","11":"category-news","12":"category-political-culture","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/BenVautier2013-copy.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-deV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50897"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51075,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50897\/revisions\/51075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}