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Born in Köln, Germany. In 1954 he discovered the word dé-coll/age: where it was used to describe the simultaneous take-off and crash of an aeroplane. He appropriated the term to signify an aesthetic philosophy, applied also to the creation of live performances, by which the destructive, violent and erotic events of contemporary life were assembled and juxtaposed. Emphasising the syllabic division word dé-coll/age, he underscored the dialectical meaning of the term applied to both the creative and destructive processes in natural and biological systems and in cultural and social structures. In 1958, Vostell realised the first Happening in Europe The Theatre happens on the street. In 1962, together with George Maciunas, George Brecht, Nam June Paik, and others he founded Fluxus and held the First International Fluxus Festival, at Museum Wiesbaden, Germany. He executed his first cement work (Concreting, bétonnage), in 1969, Stationary Trafic, in cooperation with the Gallery Art Intermedia, Köln, pointing to the ossification of human behaviour and social conditions. In 1962, Vostell founded and edited Dé-coll/age: Bulletin aktueller Ideen, a magazine devoted to the theoretical writings and manifestos of artists involved in Happenings, Fluxus, Nouveau Réalisme and Pop Art. Art as philosophy, reflection and precious object. This practice is inscribed in the dadaist tradition ("All is art") that the generation of 1955-60 claims. In Cologne the stimulating climate of audio-visual and electro acoustic experimentation was a major influence on Vostell's works for the Action-music (Fluxus concerts). In 1971, he moved to Berlin and established a happening archive (today in Malpartida), and in 1976 founded the Vostell Museum in Malpartida, Cáceres, Spain. This museum exhibits an important Fluxus collection and a room dedicated to the Portuguese avangarde.

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