Beuys Page #3

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and examine it myself and see

if what I'd created

might be of interest to anyone at all.

But, above all,

whether what I'd created interested me.

My choice of materials doesn't initially

come from a painterly impulse,

it comes from the wish

to create sculpture.

These materials appeared at a time

when I was trying to break down the term

"sculpture" into its components.

And felt appeared as an insulating element

within the three configurations

of sculpture:

undetermined, determined and movement.

The simplest thing in the world,

when describing

the process of a production,

is called...

"undetermined starting point..."

"momentum" and "form."

FAT CORNER:

Fat was the ideal material

for showing states of chaotic...

condition...

for showing movement

and the principle of form.

The principle of form appears

as a "fat corner" in a room.

In the fat, you have an ideal opportunity

to show the components of the sculpture

through the performance.

But I'm referring to sculpture

not as a static element,

but as a universal one.

I'd like to come back

to this idea of rationale.

If you make your "fat corners,"

for example...

Yes.

...then you think about

making them beforehand.

They don't appear on their own,

without a rationale, without thought.

The fat doesn't get

into the corner on its own.

Correct!

All right, that's what you think.

But I cant be so impatient.

Maybe you can allow yourself to be.

All I can say

is that it's no longer possible

to talk about sculpture

in a conventional sense,

as if one knew what it was.

"A sculpture is something

that stands there, like a coat rack.

It's spatial, you can put a hat on it..."

I've tried to apply the term to people,

so that the things I find in sculpture

I can find in people too.

That's right. You might laugh

and think how irrelevant that is.

But I've done it!

And now we come to another concept

that plays an important part.

I suggest that the first product

of human creativity is thought,

and that because of this,

thought itself is sculpture.

Thoughts affect the world.

THOUGHT = SCULPTURE

"FREEDOM"

Dsseldorf Academy of Arts.

A demon is destroying calm and order."

Joseph Beuys, professor and sculptor.

He uses the academy

to carry his ideas out into society.

Fundamentally,

every human being can be creative

if an opportunity is created

for him or her to be able to be creative.

That's the question

of equal opportunity in education.

Here, a professor

is putting his concept of art into action,

a concept that breaks out

of the aesthetic realm

and applies h:
all areas of life.

You have to ask yourself how we've arrived

at this sorry state of affairs,

what's causing these ills?

We're forced to use

everything at our disposal.

In that sense, it looks like a...

Beuys' class had a high profile

and was very much tailored

to Beuys himself.

And I was one of the worst,

I was a true disciple of Beuys,

and that's the worst thing

that can happen at any art academy,

when, instead of wanting

to do their own thing,

the students fall into line

with a particular idea.

If that happens at an academy of art...

An is very sensitive in that respect,

because it stinks of ideology

from the get-go.

There certainly are people

who have a great affinity with my ideas,

but they aren't always disciples:

we work together.

Beuys was with us in the class

from morning till evening.

There had never been anything like it

at the academy.

When he was talking to someone,

critiquing their work, for example,

he always found a new point

that had to be worked on.

And you'd be thinking,

"Let's go get a coffee, for God's sake,"

but he'd go on and on.

Do you distinguish between Beuys

the artist and Beuys the teacher?

No, not at all.

And that's exactly

what's most important to me.

I've said again and again that...

that I see this kind of work

as a product of art.

Friday, April 28, 10:30 am.

Joseph Beuys outlines his latest project.

What I'd like to do is create a kind

of cultural center here in Dusseldorf

that can be interesting

for the whole world,

as a meeting point.

Then I'd like to create a second tier:

the permanent presentation of artists

from all around the world...

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

No, no, no, no, no.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

No, no, no, no, no.

Chinese artists,

Russian artists, Hungarian artists,

American artists, Finnish artists,

and so on.

So that we can overcome

the problem of the art market

by utilizing the time factor.

But there were some professors there

who took offense at Beuys.

Because, with his concept of freedom,

he'd hit a raw nerve

by, without necessarily wanting to,

making his colleagues look bad.

He'd hit a raw nerve by basically saying:

"You're artists, this is about art.

An is total freedom

and self-determination.

And what are you? Civil servants."

I want to draw people's attention

to misguided policies,

and I'm no longer interested

in causing trouble at the academy.

I want to inform people

about the true culprits in our system.

I want to inform and educate people.

That's the idea

people often laugh at me for:

"Can sculpture change the world?"

BOXING MATCH:
JOSEPH BEUYS

&ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN

DIRECT DEMOCRACY VIA REFERENDA

The documenta was over,

and the new semester began the next day.

All the bigwigs from the government

of North Rhine-Westphalia were invited.

And Joseph Beuys stood up in front of them

and made a speech to them in grunts.

I don't think

it would've occurred to anyone to laugh.

It was too dangerous.

IS THIS THE CHOP

FOR ART PROFESSOR BEUYS?

EIGHT COLLEAGUES

MUTINYAGAINST HIM

(CONSTANT) TROUBLE WITH BEUYS

Students at the Academy of Arts

in Dsseldorf

demonstrate for one of their teachers,

Professor Joseph Beuys.

NO REPLACEMENT FOR BEUYS

How do you judge the general situation

at the academy?

It's pretty chaotic.

But we didn't cause this chaos,

it was those in authority

in the cultural bureaucracy.

Let's talk about what happened.

Along with 54 applicants

who'd been turned down by the academy,

you occupied its offices.

What did you hope to achieve by this?

I wanted to very calmly see to it

that these students,

who already attend my class,

should be enrolled.

On October 5, we were informed

that it was Professor Beuys' intention,

as of October 10,

to remain in the academys offices

for a prolonged duration.

The letter to Mr. Beuys, which was written

by proxy for the undersecretary,

had been agreed on by me, and in it,

it was pointed out to Professor Beuys

that, in spite of our sympathy

for his personal style,

we could not accept unlawful acts

and that his status as a state employee

was in question.

NO REPLACEMENT FOR BEUYS

The Minister for Science has dismissed you

without prior notice for "trespassing."

Do you think the Minister

will revoke your dismissal?

I don't think so. Maybe.

I'll leave it open.

He could at least have talked to me,

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