Robert Filliou – TELEGRAMME, 1966

This telegram rewrites the conventions of communication. Its place of origin is “intuition”; it is addressed to “you wherever you are”; only the year, 1966, is recorded. Across this open framework Robert Filliou writes a single proposition: “Night seen from night is day.” Printed like a photographic negative, the work reverses dark and light just as the text dissolves the opposition between day and night. The stamp “Transmission of the Poïpoïdrome” links the telegram to the Poïpoïdrome, the mobile environment conceived from 1963 onwards by Filliou and Joachim Pfeufer to explore the relationship between thinking, activity and communication through action and reflection.

At the core of Robert Filliou’s practice are ideas of language, play and exchange. Trained in economics and associated with Fluxus, he conceived art as a continuous, collective activity embedded in everyday life. His work challenges conventional notions of authorship, value and production, favouring openness, humour and participation. Through gestures that blur the boundaries between art and non-art, Filliou redefined creation as an ongoing process of thinking, making and sharing, an approach that continues to shape the understanding of art as a space of exchange.