Öyvind Fahlström's 1966 Performance Analyzed for Media Activism and Pop Art Ties

Öyvind Fahlström's performance Kisses Sweeter Than Wine occurred in 1966 during the 9 Evenings: art&engineering festival in New York. The work employed multimedia elements, extending the artist's prior explorations into language manipulation central to his visual art and concrete poetry practice. These manipulations created disruptions in mass-media image circulation, linking Fahlström's approach to Pop Art and emerging media activism amid the Vietnam War. The performance is analyzed in an article by Maibritt Borgen published on October 5, 2015, available via MIT Press under subscription access. Fahlström, active from 1928 to 1976, integrated linguistic experiments with visual media, positioning his work at the intersection of artistic and political discourse. The festival 9 Evenings served as a key platform for interdisciplinary collaborations between artists and engineers. Borgen's examination highlights how Fahlström's techniques critiqued contemporary media landscapes, reflecting broader cultural tensions of the 1960s. The analysis underscores the performance's role in advancing multimedia art forms and its historical significance in art and engineering dialogues.