The Infamous and Only Somewhat Ambassadorial Outpost of the Semi-Legitimate Nation of Flux (Propaganda), 2012.
by Alex Young
In the spring of 2012, Flux Factory travelled to Aarhus, Denmark and opened The Infamous and Only Somewhat Ambassadorial Outpost of the Semi-Legitimate Nation of Flux at Spanien 19C. Comprised of a miniature version of the Flux Factory space within the gallery we became Flux ambassadors on foreign soil, all the while inhabiting the space and performing “business as usual.” In recreating Flux Factory, we utilized select objects and elements of Aarhus—seemingly iconic as outsiders—so as to change Aarhus not in its material constitution, but through symbolic acts of investigatory play. The Infamous Outpost employed the City of Aarhus as its material in a project less site-specific than site-obeisant or site-celebrative. Like the carnivals that once engulfed large medieval cities for several months of a given year, Flux Factory expropriates the space of the city so as to perceive the world in a more jubilant manner. Neither dominant nor submissive in nature, this method forms a power neutral relationship between Flux and the city alternating between top and bottom in the playful exercise of influence. Denmark initiates Flux. Flux initiates Denmark. Each party opens its door to the other. Spanien 19C invites Flux to participate which in turn invites the Danes to participate and so on and so forth, closing in some indistinguishable Flux/Aarhus feedback loop. Neither tidy nor static, but multiple, contradictory and dynamic.
