Neo~Fluxus

Neo-Fluxus is a contemporary art movement pioneered in the mid-1990s by German painter/sculptor Ruben Talberg (*24.08.1964, Heidelberg), aka »King of Flow«. First articulated in his Neo-Fluxus Manifesto (1995). Neo-Fluxus marks the beginning of a new, independent, authentic art movement. Despite the shared name, Neo-Fluxus is only tangentially linked to the historical Fluxus network.

Origins and Development

Bellagio Vision (1984)

Talberg identifies a formative vision on the shores of lake Como, Bellagio, Italy 1984, where he had discovered some life-sized sculptures wrapped in tunica folds. At this point he had a déjà-vue, a flashback into his childhood, being wrapped in folds of soft fabrics, hold by his parents, re-experiencing for a brief moment those profound flows of warmth, energy and love.

There is something very deep, primitive and humane about this original vision which he describes as the initial ignition on which he later built Neo-Fluxus. He characterizes this period as a moment of insight into »the laws of flow and liquefaction,« which would become central to his sculptural vocabulary and the articulation of the Neo-Fluxus Manifesto. In the early 1990s, Talberg served as an assistant with masters Emil Schumacher and Antoni Tàpies, honing his technical prowess in abstraction and materiality.

In 1995, Talberg published the Neo-Fluxus Manifesto, codifying his philosophy of »flow« inspired by Heraclitus's »Panta rhei« (everything flows) and DAO principles. His signature Manifolds explore flow in various dichotomies such as nature vs. alchemy, asymmetry vs. dynamics, Eros vs. Thanatos. Neo-Fluxus is partly governed by the ancient idea of »Conversio oppositorum,« a transformation of opposites, in which fixed binaries (solid/liquid, raw/finished, sacred/profane, art/commodity) are continuously inverted.

The institutional anchor of Neo-Fluxus is Talberg Museum, a »single-artist museum« Talberg founded in Offenbach/Main in 2011 and officially inaugurated by local civic representatives. This act explicitly references the 19th-century »Salon des Refusés,« comparing his position vis-à-vis established institutions to that of Manet and the Impressionists in 1863. The museum’s semi-peripheral location and »by appointment only« access are folded into the work’s critical narrative: Neo-Fluxus stages itself at once inside and outside the official museum / mega-commercial gallery system.

As a creative writer he combines the flow of lyrical compositions with narrative fiction. As a photographer he focuses on the flow of the optical unconscious, »dreamscapes,« and »Talgrams« (text & painting atop photos).

True to Edgar Degas who said:»What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with an idea that has already been said, but still not enough,« Talberg took Leonardo da Vinci’s approach studying folds as part of light, shadow, and texture to render more realistic art, to a new level.

Neo-Fluxus Manifesto (1995)

The manifesto, published in 1995, constitutes the first formal definition of the movement. Key lines include:

»My Neo-Fluxus Manifolds express flow: Manifestations of the eternal return of life and energy.« 

»Creation of a radically different, revolutionary Neo-Fluxus, beyond mainstream aesthetics.«

»Manifolds are a paragon of fluidity, suggesting dynamic multiplicities in continuous flow.« 

»My fluid paranoiac-alchemic method is the alpha & omega.«

»Pantha rhei & DAO provide the foundation in perpetual transformation of Yin and Yang.« 

»Neo~Fluxus seeks the pearl of great price, the Lapis Philosophorum, the Elixir of Life.«

»Only after I pass away, my Neo-Fluxus ultimately comes to rest. Finis coronat Opus Magnum.« This teleology parallels alchemical and Romantic traditions in which an artist’s life-work reaches its completion only at death.

»Confronting anti-flow, censorship, tyrannocracy.« Neo-Fluxus is framed as a critical force. Talberg’s explicit social critique addresses what he calls a narcissistic, post-utopian society dominated by bored Philistines and market henchmen who enforce symbolic obedience in lieu of overt violence. Neo-Fluxus proposes an alternative quest for the »Lapis Philosophorum.«

Manifolds / Definition

Manifolds are central sculptural entities within Neo-Fluxus. They are presented as:

• continuously flowing multiplicities / topological structures 

• governed by laws of »conversio oppositorum and chance« 

• undergoing a »12-step alchemic transformation« 

• representing metaphysical processes of eternal return.

The manifesto, Talberg’s »Declaration of Independence,« is simultaneously artistic, philosophical and political, positioning Neo-Fluxus as a standalone »revolutionary« art movement. It revitalizes the spirit of past avant-garde art movements by advocating for disruption and resistance to established norms. His emphasis on flow and the never-ending quest for the »Holy Grail« aligns with the dynamic and ever-changing nature of art.

Neo-Fluxus Concept and Philosophy

Talberg in general casts the oeuvre as an open-ended production line. Each Manifold is treated as part of an extended typology of tondi (circular reliefs), spheres, triptychs, polyptychs and sculptures that together form the Neo-Fluxus corpus. Manifolds are sculptural objects designed to encode flow, liquidity, and continuous multiplicity.

• High relief—sculptural forms that protrude far enough to verge on full three-dimensionality.

• Visual language—topological forms embodying uninterrupted rhythm and movement.

 • Personal mythology—rooted in a dynamic 12-step alchemic transformation cycle.

• Emphasis on verticality—elongation connotes distortion, abstraction, transcendence.

• Biomorphic morphology—curvilinear, organism-like structures echoing biomorphism.

• Semiotic resistance—opposing rigidity, censorship, tyrannocracy.

Philosophical Influences

Neo-Fluxus Manifolds integrate concepts from:

Heraclitus’ »Panta rhei« (everything flows). He argued that change and flux are fundamental aspects of the universe, emphasizing the dynamic nature of reality. His philosophy of constant change highlights that the world is an ongoing process of transformation, and stability is an illusion, emphasizing becoming over static being. 

Daoist cosmology, emphasizing cyclical movement and natural fluidity. Daoism emphasizes the dynamic and fluid nature of Dao. It is strongly associated with water, the mother of 10.000 things. This aligns with the idea of »wu wei,« which means »effortless action.« 

Nietzsche’s eternal return, framing flow as an ontological iteration. He uses this notion not only as a metaphysical hypothesis but as a test for affirming life. The iteration is itself a creative process or flow that generates new forms within repetition, blending becoming (continuous change) and being (recurrence of existence).

Deleuzian topology. Deleuze is interested in processes of becoming, transformation, and change. He argues that reality is in a constant state of flux, and entities like Manifolds are defined by their dynamic relations and transformations. Manifolds are multiplicities of different, non-identical elements, interconnected, generating diversity and complexity. He says:»Becoming is creating from the outside, against everything that opposes.«

Baudrillard's hyperreality. Manifolds embody the hyperreal—a reality intensified to the point of disconnection from the tangible world, emphasizing the dissolution of boundaries between the real and its representations. He suggests that art itself may be a form of simulation, mirroring the artificiality of contemporary existence. 

Alchemic symbolism. Carl Gustav Jung interpreted it as projections of unconscious psychic processes onto matter, which Talberg presents as a transformational schema. Mercurius, the central flowing symbol, emerges from the "Mercurial Fountain" as three streams. Jung saw this as the unconscious projecting into matter: fluid yet paradoxical, nourishing and poisonous, uniting body and spirit in endless renewal. The fountain's cycle, from chaos (four elements) to unity (quinta essentia), parallels individuation's flowing progression. 

Art of darkness. Aleister Crowley described flow as a harmonious unity where the self resolves its dualities and energy flows freely toward its natural goal. He saw this flow as a liberation of conventional moral consciousness from doubt and self-obsession. Talberg quotes him directly in his manifesto:»Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.«

Paranoiac-Alchemic Method. Talberg’s »paranoiac-alchemic method« evokes Salvador Dalí’s paranoiac-critical method—described as a »spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on critical association.« The method reflects a deconstruction of identity and reality, tapping into the unconscious mind and paranoid delusions to explore irrational and dreamlike states.

Neo-Fluxus Subject Matter / Iconography

Neo-Fluxus expresses flow. Talberg frames his practice as a modern »Opus Magnum,« in which the artist functions as both alchemist and subject of transformation. The work is not merely the transmutation of base materials into aesthetic gold, but the parallel transformation of the artist into a mythic, quasi-archetypal figure (Prometheus, Orpheus, Percival).

Neo-Fluxus is thematically dense. The major leitmotif »flow« structures the movement at multiple levels.

Material vs. Immaterial: rough organic matter (hay, bones, twigs, blood, tar, sand) is folded into high-relief topology and sculpture.

Sacred vs. Profane: religious and mythological symbols are juxtaposed with logos, mass-media fragments and cut-outs from print media. Talberg declares the negative spaces that emerge between the patterns as twilight-zones, inhabited with ghostly mythological figures.

Alchemy vs. Nature: Philosopher’s Stone, Holy Grail, Opus Magnum, elemental systems (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), and Latin mottoes such as »Finis coronat opus magnum« and »Ignis Natura renovatur integra« (fire renews nature).

Eros & Thanatos / Apollon & Dionysus: the dynamic flow between Eros & Thanatos, Apollonian & Dionysian dreamscapes has been a subject of art since the earliest recorded cave paintings. Manifolds reflect on the transitory nature of human existence.

Mythology / Occultism: recurring figures and allusions to Kabbalah, Voodoo, hermetic and paranormal imagery. Manifolds are described as »idols, Voodoo fetishes, magic mirrors« that appear to »look back« at the viewer.

Mortality / Survival: an undercurrent of Eros & Thanatos is linked to Talberg’s own numerous brushes with death, inscribing vulnerability into otherwise opulent surfaces.

Abstract dreamscapes: even highly abstract Manifolds are framed as derived from nature. When presented as large triptychs or series, they function as panoramas that can only be grasped by »supervision« —a totalizing, flowing gaze. The same ideas apply to sculptures which primarily function as vertoramas, inviting a 360 degrees view.

3D relief (Rückenfigur/Rückenmalerei): The term »Rückenfigur« (»figure from the back«) was introduced by Caspar D. Friedrich and describes paintings in which a figure is portrayed with his back toward the viewer. Manifolds take this idea to a new level. According to the ancient idea of »conversio oppositorum« the backside (including canvas stretchers) now becomes the front side.

Personal writing systems / Creative writing: Talberg writes poems, lyrical compositions, narrative fiction, »Talgrams« (text & painting on photography). He deconstructs & reconstructs, morphs, transforms, transmutes materials and letters into gestalt & gesture, pictograms or glyphs, sounds and metaphors into hieroglyphic signs or symbols which develop new metaphysical relationships—in part resembling traditional Chinese calligraphy. These scripts complicate legibility, operating as both image and encrypted text. The »Neo-Fluxus Manifesto« speaks for itself, most of the letters are self-fashioned.

Cross-Cultural dialogue: Manifolds marry the traditions and imagery of disparate cultures such as Europe, Asia and the Americas. While in art history there is a long tradition of such exchange, today in a globalized and digitalized world one might argue that the boundaries between what is considered »foreign« or »native« have become extremely blurred.

Art vs. Commodity: while formally rejecting super-commercial galleries, Neo-Fluxus acknowledges the art market as part of its field of struggle, using rarity like the digital 888 Manifolds series and his single-artist museum as counter-strategies.

Visual Qualities

The Manifold is the core form of Neo-Fluxus. It is both an individual artwork and the generic name for Talberg’s reliefs or sculptures. Their orientation fundamentally is either panoramic or vertoramic.

The mode of display is integral to Neo-Fluxus. According to the ancient idea of »conversio oppositorum«, Manifolds are executed on the back of the canvas. The wooden stretchers, normally concealed, become structural frames and active pictorial elements. Turning the canvas around reverses the conventional hierarchy of front/back and image/support. Since each Manifold is self-framing, there is no neutral border between artwork and wall. Frames are conceived as extensions of the sculptural field and sometimes echo altarpiece formats (triptychs, tondi).

Neo-Fluxus is characterized by a pronounced material heterogeneity and an insistently haptic surface.

Layered images / Dense composition: Talberg works with distinct overlays of visual imagery. This layering he achieves both through the physical build up of translucent mediums (such as glazing or varnish) or sediment-like compositions. When he produces textural multi-layered applications, his impastos are dense with purpose—the purpose being to explore the tactility and boundaries of paint itself like transmutations when night falls into ruins and the sky's pigments battle it out for domination and permanence.

Material heterogeneity: feathers, bones, straw, clay, sand, tar, cloth, bodily substances are aggregated in thick impastos, blurring the boundary between low/high relief and sculpture. Manifolds combine mixed media materials such as drawing, painting, assemblage, photography (photo as material). They seek the reciprocal tension between abstraction and figuration. Both poles are charged with complimentary energies as separate constituents—opening up twilight zones.

Curvilinear forms: Manifolds constitute a distinct departure from anything mechanical or right angled, a deep exploration into the depth of organic matter.

Asymmetry vs. Dynamics: Manifolds emphasize elongated, distorted forms, be it as a panorama or vertorama, aligning with a longstanding artistic tradition, including artists like Parmigianino, Cellini, Michelangelo, El Greco, Giacometti, Modigliani, Schiele. Manifolds easily exceed the speed limits of conventional parameters like the golden ratio.

Collage / Assamblage: Manifolds embed paper cut-outs, media images, evoking Plato’s cave allegory and highlighting the gap between essence and appearance, idea and matter.

Solid vs. Liquid: flamethrowers liquefy, craquelure and patinas produce burned, cracked or oxidized textures that suggest ruin, decay and renewal.

Primary colors / Metallic sheen: intense reds, blues and yellows, as well as gold or purple surfaces, monochrome variations in white, red or orange echo both modern abstraction and the alchemical pursuit of transmutation.

Organic shape: biomorphic Manifolds draw upon the shapes of all living things, both defying direct figurative associations and rejecting the rigid structures of geometric abstraction in favor of something much more free-flowing.

Calligraphy / Gestural folding: folds themselves function as gestures, aligning Talberg with gestural lineages from Baroque painting to Neo-Expressionism, yet shifting the emphasis from the brushstroke to the sculpted fold.

Raw vs. Finished: sections of untreated substrate are set against laboriously finished, varnished or metallic areas, foregrounding process and the temporality of making.

Relief / Sculpture: Manifolds not only exploit the »wrong side« of canvas as pictorial playing fields but also explore three-dimensional biomorphic forms, transforming pictorial space into unexpected structures of flow.

Large-scale format: enveloping the viewer and dominating interior spaces, large scale formats create impact. Similar to altar pieces they take the form of diptychs or triptychs which could take up entire walls.

Fortuna / Chance: Talberg consults the I-Ching, draws cards or throws darts targeting palette boards to determine how to proceed with a work. Fortuna is often depicted as Cornucopia (Horn of Plenty) which shares the same root (cornu) as Cornelis (Talberg’s second given name). As a Chinese Yang Wood Dragon (*1964) he appears to attract luck and energy.

As Talberg stated, Manifolds represent »autonomous zones,« freedom from censorship and tyrannocracy. The spectator‘s view becomes either panoramic or vertoramic, depending on the orientation of the work. Neo-Fluxus as an interface between supervision and miniaturization. Synchronism between extension and reduction, continuity of view and discretion of separate perceptions. 3D view of totality and factual confinement within panorama / vertorama.

888 Manifolds Digital Series

• Innovation / Technology. Talberg’s entry into the digital sphere extends the pioneering rigor with which he founded Neo-Fluxus and later institutionalized it via the Talberg Museum, a marker of blue-chip artistic sovereignty.

The 888 Manifolds (2023–24) transpose his analogue paranoiac-alchemic method into a hybrid digital syntax: Talgrams (photographic scripts), sculptural scans, and painterly strata converge into crossover artefacts that preserve the Manifold’s topological flow. Rather than adopting digital tools, Talberg subsumes them under the manifesto’s cosmology of Conversio oppositorum, making the digital not an aesthetic addendum but a further alchemic »state« of the Manifold.

• Art World. Within contemporary discourse, the 888 Manifolds represent a deliberate transmutation of Neo-Fluxus into Web3—neither speculative branding nor opportunistic minting. As with his analogue corpus, the digital works remain embedded in the artist’s lifelong pursuit of flow, described in the manifesto as »eternal return of life and energy.«

This continuity situates Talberg alongside the rare group of established physical artists whose NFTs operate as extensions of a coherent metaphysical system, not stylistic novelties. The project thus aligns with institutional-grade trajectories: a digital expansion issuing from an already canonized, museum-anchored movement.

• Artist’s Intent. The migration into on-chain form follows Talberg’s own principle that flow, being ontological, cannot be restricted to the material substrate. NFT-Manifolds constitute a new infrastructure of flow—of provenance, circulation, and symbolic value—mirroring the spiritual-energetic vectors that govern the physical Manifolds.

In his alchemic terminology, the series becomes a digital athanor, where liquidity (DAO, Yin/Yang, Fortuna) reappears as programmable scarcity. For Talberg, the digital is not a departure but a conversion—a further step in the Opus Magnum.

• Market Impact. Should the 888 Manifolds be tokenized as NFTs or DFI tokens, their market proposition is unusually strong: a finite corpus (888), deeply narrativized, and structurally bonded to an analogue body of work with auction results and a dedicated museum.

This configuration typically signals blue-chip NFT behavior—a bridge between physical institutional validation and on-chain scarcity. Collectors respond to precisely such dual anchoring: a numerically closed set with mythic lineage, authored by an artist whose practice already commands cultural and historical gravitas.

• Cultural Significance. At a moment when blockchains outlast physical archives, Talberg’s decision to cast a segment of the Opus Magnum into a capped digital ledger addresses contemporary debates around permanence, memory, and symbolic capital.

His approach exemplifies how a materially driven, flow-centric sculptor can convert the Manifold into a cryptographic reliquary, preserving the alchemic cycle beyond the limits of matter. The 888 Manifolds thus stand as a critical case study in the ongoing negotiation between art and commodity—offering a spiritually charged counter-narrative to the purely financialized NFT landscape.

Art-Historical Interpretation

Art historically Neo-Fluxus is associated with Biomorphism, Neo-Expressionism, Art Informel, Futurism, Process Art and Fluxus.

Biomorphism

Talberg’s Manifolds radicalize biomorphism by converting Arp- and Moore-like curvatures into paranoiac-alchemic topologies that express flow: »manifestations of the eternal return of life and energy.« Their curvilinear swelling, tapering, and liquefaction enact what he calls the »laws of flow and liquefaction« (Bellagio Vision 1984). Biomorphism becomes not a naturalist reference but a metaphysical morphology in which folds function as dynamic organismic membranes for Conversio oppositorum. Organic asymmetries—hay, bones, twigs embedded into relief—form living strata, conduits of Eros/Thanatos. Talberg’s reversal of front/back repeats the biological inversion of inside/outside: the »backside… becomes the front side.« Thus Neo-Fluxus aligns with biomorphism by re-biologizing the artwork as a perpetually mutating life-form, a »paragon of fluidity.«

Neo-Expressionism

Where Neo-Expressionism externalizes psychic force through violent gesture, Talberg internalizes gesture into folded sculptural strata, producing a three-dimensional gesturality that surpasses mere brushstroke. His »fluid paranoiac-alchemic method« parallels the movement’s immediacy yet transforms it into ritualized flow, guided by I-Ching, darts, and Fortuna. Like Kiefer, his surfaces bruise with material excess, but the aim is not catharsis: it is the alchemical circulation of opposites, inscribed in the manifold’s vertical elongations reminiscent of Schiele. Text fragments and occult symbols echo the palimpsests of Basquiat but serve Talberg’s mytho-hermetic system. Neo-Fluxus thus reframes Neo-Expressionist turbulence as ontological dynamism, an »eternal return of life and energy.«

Art Informel

Talberg’s apprenticeship with Emil Schumacher (Lyrical Abstraction) and Antoni Tàpies (Pintura Matèrica) directly tethers Neo-Fluxus to the Informel lineage of material event and anti-composition. Yet he extends Informel’s gestural sedimentation into a 12-step alchemic transformation, conceiving surfaces as volatile crucibles rather than open improvisations. The use of tar, sand, clay, straw, bones intensifies Tàpies-like material metaphysics while subordinating them to the manifesto’s axiom: »My Manifolds are governed by Conversio oppositorum & chance.« Decentered, field-like dispersion is preserved, but reorganized as topological flow, not spontaneity. Informel’s unfinishedness becomes the formalization of Heraclitean process—»Pantha rhei«—rendering each Manifold a cross-section of becoming, not an accidental residue.

Futurism

Futurist dynamism is reinterpreted by Talberg as ontological flow, replacing machine velocity with metaphysical currents of Yin/Yang. His elongated reliefs generate directional vectors—rising, folding, spiraling—akin to Boccioni’s force-lines yet tied to inner, alchemic propulsion. Temporal simultaneity appears in layered strata where past and present strokes coexist, recalling Marinetti’s »plastic dynamism,« but here functioning as the eternal return Nietzschean loop. Metallic sheens, incandescent reds and golds echo Futurist luminosities while serving transmutational symbolism (Lapis Philosophorum). Neo-Fluxus aligns with Futurism insofar as both dissolve bodies into vector fields, yet Talberg’s field is esoteric, not techno-utopian—motion as spiritual liquefaction.

Process Art

Process Art’s anti-form is subsumed in Talberg’s paranoiac-alchemic method, where action, chance, and material behavior become ritual procedures. Pouring, burning, craquelure, liquefaction and sedimentation evoke Serra or Morris (Anti-Form), yet are given teleological weight through the manifesto’s declaration that the Opus Magnum only ends at death: »Only after I pass away, my Neo-Fluxus… comes to rest.« Thus process is fate-bound, not open-ended. The artwork’s reverse-construction (work on the stretcher’s back) exemplifies process as structural inversion, an alchemical turn. Fortuna—through I-Ching, darts, Cornucopia—is not randomness but cosmic alignment of flows. Neo-Fluxus aligns with Process Art only at the point where material transformation becomes metaphysical destiny.

Fluxus

In light of the flux manifesto 1963 (»Purge the world of Bourgeois sickness,,.«) it is quiet evident that what was once termed Fluxus in the early 1960s, bears little resemblance to Neo-Fluxus, if only nominally. In reality, historic fluxus tried to reanimate old gags of Dada, affiliating with a dash of Marxist ideology (»FUSE the cadres of cultural, social, political revolutionaries into united front...«).

No later than when G. Maciunas (Fluxus organizer) denounced composer K. Stockhausen in NYC on 8 September 1964 as a cultural imperialist and his work »Originale« as inferior, Fluxus demise was sealed. As a kind of afterglow to this event, he then sent video-artist Nam June Paik a hand-written note of excommunication:»Traitor, you left Fluxus!« Some art historians said, Fluxus died on this day.

Talberg later framed this historical moment as coinciding with the symbolic birth of Neo-Fluxus 20 years later (1984), arguing that »a couple of days after [he] was born in 1964, historical Fluxus died,« thus establishing a genealogical rupture rather than continuity.

Reception of Neo-Fluxus

• Flow in an age of acceleration. Neo-Fluxus will likely be read as a paradigmatic articulation of flow in an era defined by digital acceleration and liquidity. Talberg’s folded Manifolds—literally constructed on the »wrong« side of the canvas—resonate uncannily with the contemporary obsession with smooth, foldable interfaces (Honor, Vivo, Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, Samsung).

In this sense, his sculptural folds anticipate and allegorize the screen-based circulation of images, positioning Neo-Fluxus as a tactile counter-model to frictionless, dematerialized UX design.

• Selective intensification of a ubiquitous concept. The concept of flow, now diffused across fashion, design, architecture, philosophy or gaming, will be seen as omnipresent yet largely diluted. Against this backdrop Talberg’s Neo-Fluxus appears as an extreme, obsessive intensification of a term that elsewhere has become a cliché.

Where other practices merely reference fluidity, Talberg builds a liquid framework—philosophical, material, alchemic—around it. Reception will therefore hinge on recognizing Neo-Fluxus as a »singular condensation« of a widely circulated, but rarely theorized, cultural keyword.

• Museum-grade autonomy and »single-artist« sovereignty. Talberg Museum in Offenbach/Main will be interpreted as a strong institutional argument: Neo-Fluxus is not simply a stylistic tendency, but a museum-grade, self-archiving system. Art historians are likely to compare this to 19th-century Salon des Refusés strategies, reading the museum’s semi-peripheral location and by-appointment access as a critical stance vis-à-vis mega-galleries and global museum brands. For the market, such autonomous infrastructure signals blue-chip potential: a movement robust enough to sustain its own institutional ecology.

• Positioning within and against Fluxus lineages. The name »Neo-Fluxus« will inevitably provoke attempts to align Talberg with historical Fluxus. However, his insistence on a genealogical rupture—linking the symbolic »death« of Fluxus in the 1960s with his own formative vision in Bellagio (1984)—invites a different reading: Neo-Fluxus as »post-Fluxus counter-genealogy,« reclaiming »flux« as ontological flow rather than as anti-art trash happenings. Reception will probably oscillate between misreadings that treat Neo-Fluxus as a nostalgic reprise, and more nuanced accounts that see it as a critical re-appropriation of the term »Fluxus« itself.

• Art-historical triangulation with Biomorphism, Neo-Expressionism, Art Informel, Futurism, Process Art. Scholars will likely position Neo-Fluxus at a complex intersection: biomorphic morphology (Arp, Moore), gestural intensity (Neo-Expressionism), material event (Tàpies, Schumacher), dynamism (Futurism), and processuality (Process Art). Yet reception will also note that Talberg overcodes these lineages through an explicitly articulated philosophy of flow—Heraclitus’ Panta rhei, Daoist cosmology, Nietzsche’s eternal return, Jungian alchemy—thus shifting the discussion from mere stylistic affinities to a rare case where an artist provides a comprehensive metaphysical framework for his own mode of thinking.

• Critical resonance in a »narcissistic, post-utopian society.« Talberg’s polemical rhetoric against »bored Philistines« and »market henchmen« who enforce symbolic obedience will attract attention in debates about late-capitalist art markets. Neo-Fluxus positions itself as an art of flow sabotage—folds, burns, liquefactions as resistance to smooth cultural programming. Critical reception is likely to emphasize this oppositional stance, reading Manifolds as »autonomous zones« that stage a refusal of both algorithmic visibility and institutional domestication.

• Digital reception and the 888 Manifolds as Web3 case study. In the Web3 and digital-investment context, the 888 Manifolds digital series will be discussed as a model of how an established analogue, museum-backed oeuvre can coherently enter NFT/DFI ecosystems. Here, Neo-Fluxus will be perceived not as trend-chasing, but as conceptual continuity: NFTs as another »state« of the Manifold’s alchemic substance. Curators and collectors may treat the 888 series as a flagship example of how on-chain scarcity, narrative depth, and institutional gravitas can converge, setting a benchmark for »blue-chip« crypto-art grounded in a pre-existing movement.

• Reception as living Opus Magnum and posthumous teleology. Finally, Talberg’s own declaration—»Only after I pass away, my Neo~Fluxus ultimately comes to rest. Finis coronat Opus Magnum«—will shape long-term reception. Neo-Fluxus presents itself as a life-long project whose completion is structurally tied to the artist’s biography. Critics and historians are therefore likely to interpret each new Manifold, exhibition, or digital iteration as a chapter in an unfolding Opus Magnum, with the full art-historical verdict only emerging posthumously—precisely as the manifesto predicts.

• Canonization through publication and catalogues raisonnés. The forthcoming book »Flow ~ Elixir of Life!« and the projected Coffee Table Book Trilogy »888 Digital Manifolds« Vol. I–III (300 + 300 + 288 Manifolds) will likely function as quasi–catalogues raisonnés of the Neo-Fluxus corpus. For curators and scholars, these volumes provide the necessary archival density to move Talberg from independent position to canonizable oeuvre. Their structuring around the number 888 and the Opus Magnum narrative will further cement reception in a hybrid register: part scholarship, part mythopoeic documentation.