ARTIFICIAL HELLS

the social under socialism
Despite this somewhat escapist framework, in which Knížák effectively
became leader of his own social group, the character of his actions nevertheless
changed substantially after travelling to the West. During the Prague
Spring, Knížák obtained a visa to visit the US, at the invitation of Fluxus
artist George Maciunas. He lectured there and produced two new actions in
1969. However, in comparison to his extrovert provocations of the mid ’60s,
the works made in the US are notable for their emphasis on solitude and
meditative silence. Lying-Down Ceremony (Douglas University, New Jersey,
1967– 68) invited participants to lie down on the floor of a room, wearing
blindfolds; Difficult Ceremony (1966– 69), performed at Greene Street, New
York City on 18 January 1969, was a twenty- four- hour event in which participants
were instructed to spend time together without ‘eating, drinking,
smoking, sleeping, getting high, talking, or communicating in any other way
(for example, by writing, sign language, etc.). 24 hours later, the company
parts in silence.’ 22 If Knížák’s earlier works sought to provoke the public in
outdoor settings, his events in the US are characterised by refusal, interiority,
austerity, and the privileging of subjective experience. With students as his
participants, Lying-Down Ceremony in particular seems to invite parallels to
Lygia Clark’s experiments at the Sorbonne during these years; but Knížák’s
event is austere in comparison with the sensory blurring of interior and exterior
that takes place in Clark’s ‘collective body’. 23 The introverted character
of these works can be ascribed in part to the period Knížák spent in jail in
Vienna en route to New York (for not having the correct papers), during
which time he wrote Action for My Mind – an interrogative mantra in the
Milan Knížák, Lying-Down Ceremony, 1967–68
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