(b Liepaja, 14 April 1939; d West Berlin, 14 Feb 1984). Latvian performance artist. He arrived in Germany at the age of five as a refugee and later triumphed over geopolitical circumstances to help revitalize artistic culture in his occupied homeland. While pursuing architectural studies at the Technische Hochschule in Aachen (1961-71), he grew interested in the interplay of progressive politics and innovative art forms, which prompted early collaborations with Wolf Vostell and Joseph Beuys, such as their performance 20 July '64. In 1966 Abolins and Gerd Vorhoff founded the Neue Galerie in Aachen, where they organized happenings and performances by Beuys, J?rg Immendorff, Nam June Paik, Tomas Schmit and other key members of FLUXUS, the movement instigated by another exiled Balt, the composer George Maciunas (1931-78). At the same time, inspired by the New Left, Abolins combated artistic provincialism within the conservative Latvian ?migr? community by proposing a cultural rapprochement with Soviet Latvia. Advocating an international
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