Universal Futurological Question Mark (U.F.O)

Julius Koller, "Universal Futurological Question Mark (U.F.O)", 1978.

This work  is one of Koller’s many variations which he began to use from 1970 to describe the ‘cultural situations’ he created. His "Anti-Happenings" turned mundane events into 'cultural' and 'subjective' situations. He sought to create new cultural situations that weren't new art, but rather new ways of living: a new creativity for a new humanistic culture. In the face of Communist ideology, subjectivity reclaimed its role with all of its poetry and discord.

The critic Jan Verwoert has commented on the significance of this constantly shifting reference: it ‘becomes a metaphor for the invasion of reality by the imagination. As such, it captures the essence of Utopian thought: to confront the microcosm of an actual state of affairs with the macrocosm of infinite possibilities – to show that society can be changed.’ (Jan Verwoert, ‘Július Koller: Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany’, Frieze no.79, November–December 2003, pp.98–9.)