Fluxus Fetish : Conservation, Desire and Affect

This chapter examines the concept of fetishism through psychoanalytic, cultural, heritage and conservation theories, with a particular focus on Francesco Conz’s collection of Fluxus fetish objects. Fetishism is defined as an obsessive attachment to objects that hold symbolic or spiritual meaning. Conz’s collection, which includes both mundane and artistically inscribed objects, reflects the tension between personal, historical and affective dimensions of these items. Hanna B. Hölling situates Conz’s practices within broader histories of collecting, linking them to human impulses for hoarding and preservation. The chapter argues that collecting and conserving are affective and epistemic acts, generating meaning and control over a chaotic world. Ultimately, the analysis explores how fetishized objects shape practices of care and provoke questions about their role within collections, conservation and cultural memory. In this light, conservation emerges not as a neutral act but as a performative ritual, an affective co-production with objects that sustain desire.