The conductor walks away. The crowd applauds. Beethoven's 5th? A moving rendition by the orchestra? Eric Satie? Closer, but wrong again. The performer is Ben Patterson and he's just completed George Maciunas' "Solo for Conductor." For this, he bent over to face the audience, placed his baton on the floor and, voila, he retied his shoelaces.
This had been preceded by "F/H Trace," in which a French horn player spilled marbles out of the horn's mouth as he bowed to the crowd.
We're not at an exotic circus, but at Urawa Art Museum in Saitama, where Patterson conducted the "Saitama Once Only Fluxus Ensemble" on Nov. 23 to celebrate its current "Fluxus: Art Into Life" exhibition.