/ About Art's Birthday

On the 17th of January 2004, Art is 1,000.041 years old

Art's Birthday is an annual event first proposed in 1963 by French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou. He declared that 1,000.000 years ago, there was no art. But one day, on the 17th of January to be precise, Art was born when someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water.Modest beginnings, but look at us now.

Filliou proposed a public holiday to celebrate the presence of art in our lives. In recent years, the idea has been taken up by a loose network of artists and friends around the world.

Since 1999, Kunstradio has participated online, onsite, and onair in the global celebrations of Art's Birthday inviting artists to stream sound and video in live exchange with other institutions or individual artists. Over the years, Kunstradio has collaborated with partners around the globe, such as Western Front, Vancouver; First Floor Eastside, Tilos Radio, Budapest; Stadtwerkstatt Linz, Radio Fro, Linz; Radio Kinesonus, Tokyo; Ping FM, Weimar; Citr FM, Vancouver and many more.

All Kunstradio Art's Birthday events so far have been streamed live online and the documentation of past events is still available. See this list for reference:

Art's Birthday 1999

Art's Birthday Party 2000

Art's Birthday 2002

Art's Birthday 2003