Page 112 - ARTE!Brasileiros #55
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ENGLISH VERSION IN MOURNING I STRUGGLE



           by collective debates, in which both art   All these organizations demonstrate how   impossibility of any relationship between
           and social issues were discussed.” In 1971,   much Beuys believed in transformation by   art and society”, Fluxus had a more positive
           Beuys came to occupy the secretariat of the   institutional means, at a time when Germany   view, which sought to link life and art.
           Academy of Art, to protest the restrictions   was shaken by associations that also sought   It is remarkable that Marcel Duchamp’s
           on the admission of students, then founding   change, but by illegal means, such as the   silence is overrated occurred just inside a
           the Organization for Direct Democracy by   far-left guerrilla group Baader Meinhoff,   Fluxus event, because its members had great
           National Referendum.             which existed between 1970 and 1988. The   appreciation for the french artist creator of
            A little earlier, that same year, he had already   use of instruments of direct democracy also   the ready-made. Beuys’ connection to Fluxus
           admitted in his class the 142 candidates who   points out the importance of the thought   was intense, but it did not last long, and the
           were turned down by the Academy, but this set   of each individual, against the principles of   performance shows how the german artist’s
           of protests ended up costing him the job and   representative democracy.  critical character was in the confrontation,
           a lawsuit, which he won in 1978. Fundamental   Even so, Beuys went on to run for the   within the very space of the institutions where
           here is to reinforce the libertarian character   European Parliament in 1979 for the group   it worked.
           of his activity as a teacher, which represents   Other  Political  Association  (Sonstige   This capacity for criticism also occurs in the
           enabling each student to develop his own work,   politische Vereinigung), which the following   performance I like America and America likes
           regardless of his work, as he stated in a 1972   year would become The Greens. On that   me, in May 1974 for three consecutive days,
           interview:                       occasion, he launched the manifesto “Call for   eight hours each day, on the occasion of the
                                            the Alternative”, published in the Frankfurter   opening of the gallery of the German René Block
             It is often said that in my classes everything   Rundschau newspaper on 23/12/1978, and   in New York.
              would be conceptual or political. But for   reprinted in 1979 for the first election to the   Beuys arrived in the U.S. by plane and, from
              me it is very important that it results in   European Parliament. The text advocated   JfK airport, set off in an ambulance, going
              something sensually palpable, with broad   non-violence, the transformation of the use   straight to a cage built in the gallery, where he
              epistemological foundations. My main   of money and the organization of the State,   lived with a coiote, an animal considered sacred
              interest there is to start with the language   questioning the escape from reality and even   by the native peoples of the usa. According
             and let the materializations follow as a   the use of drugs. This manifesto became the   to the myth of the performance, after three
              correlation of thought and action. The   poster that integrated its participation in the   days, the artist would have been taken back
              most important thing for me is that the   15th Bienal de São Paulo, with the title Call for   to the airport, without having stepped on
              human being, through his products,   a global alternative, in 1979.  American soil.
              experiences models of how to co-act   From 1980 to 1986, the Greens maintained,   Beuys had been working with Block for a long
              in the relationship with the whole; and   under the direction of Johann Stüttgen, a   time. It was in his gallery that he once covered
              not only produce articles, but become a   coordinating office in room 3 of the Academy   the corners with fat, rounding the rigid shape
              visual artist or architect in the entire social   of Dusseldorf, the former Beuys room.  of his architecture, bringing to it an organic
              organism. The future social order will be                     character, which was transformed over the
              formed according to the principles of art.     2.3 The art system  days when the fat was exposed. Here one can
              (CHRISTENSEN, p. 12)          On December 11, 1964, Beuys presented the   see how Beuys cares about the plastic issue,
                                            performance Marcel Duchamp’s silence is   but it is a vehicle for his ideas.
           His belief in the power of institutional   overrated (Das Schweigen von Marcel Duchamp   In I like America... their action is more radical.
           education does not end with his departure   wird uberbewertet), an action broadcast live   He lives with an animal, wrapped in felt and,
           from the Düsseldorf Academy of Art in 1971.   on German tv Zdf, as a member of the Fluxus   leaning on a cane, approaches the interactivity
           Three years later, he founded the International   group, using in addition to speech, its typical   with nature, so important to the idea of “social
           Free University (F.I.U. – Freie Internationale   materials such as fat and felt.  sculpture”. The performance, in fact, points out
           Universität), which served for the development                   how the artist lived his own utopia in his work,
           of many of his  projects,  such  as  Seven   Duchamp was an indolent who created   showing that the realization of his proposals
           thousand oaks in the Documenta de Kassel   beautiful and interesting provocations   is feasible, besides pointing out a character
           in 1982.                           for the bourgeoisie and made the affronts   of non-objectual art, non-commercial, anti-
            In Documenta itself, but in 1977, in its   brilliantly in the aesthetic typology of his   representational. This is because Beuys,
           6th. Edition, The F.I.U. was responsible for   time. (CHRISTENSEN, p. 32)  who called himself “a reincarnated caveman”
           organizing Honey Bomb in the workplace, a                        [Borer, p. 30], was living his proposals, was not
           room in which Beuys and his collaborators   This anti-Bourgeois spirit in Beuys’s speech is   creating mere illustrations for them. Experience
           spent a hundred days – the usual time of   exactly one of the main characteristics of the   is an essential part of your actions.
           duration of the show, debating the “social   Fluxus group, created in 1961 at the ag gallery in   This action is also a good example of how,
           sculpture”, that is, the new model of society.   New York by Lithuanian artist George Maciunas.   in Borer’s conception, Beuys can be seen as
           However, the F.I.U. was not created as simply   With an international character, Fluxus was   a pastor:
           an alternative to the German university system.   not characterized by a formal style among
           As Beuys declared in 1985:       its components, but by a common principle:   The pastor leads his disciples to a place
                                            to abolish the objectual question of art as   only he knows – a promise of a higher state;
             The International Free University is an   the primacy of its existence and to value the   he is the man looking for a path, a path
              international research community. Its       process in its constitution.  more extensive and vast than him: he opens
              circle of collaborators is relatively small.   Beuys joined the group through colleague   passage. (BORER, p. 23)
             It is not possible to attend the F.I.U. It is   Nan June Paik, a Korean artist who was also
              simply the project of a new society, beyond   a teacher in Düsseldorf. In addition, also    This occurs in a great way in his project Seven
              capitalism and communism. To accomplish   participated in the events organized by Fluxus   thousand oaks, which the artist started in 1982,
              this task, each has to find support in himself.   artists such as the American musician John   on the occasion of Documenta 7, created from
              (FARKAS, p. 45)               Cage, whose experimentations were decisive   F.I.U. Its goal was that 7,000 such trees be
                                            for the group, and the Japanese Yoko Ono. At   planted throughout the city, always next to
           As in all of Beuys’ work, F.I.U. also did not   Fluxus festivals, Beuys performed especially   a basalt column. Again, one sees here the
           constitute a conventional structure of   actions, anticipating the idea of performance,   insightful ability of Beuys to work with images:
           established standards, but proposed a new   which had not been characterized as a   to this day, those who visit Kassel face the
           possibility to disseminate the artist’s thinking in   language.  oaks planted by Beuys and his collaborators.
           a pragmatic way. To think, in Beuys, is to realize.  Fluxus is linked, in general, to the anti-art
                                            character of the Dada movement, which   The symbolic beginning of the vital
           2.2 The political system         also used everyday elements and ephemeral   reforestation of the Earth must take place
           In 1979, the F.I.U. was one of five organizations   actions, questioning the commercial value   in Kassel. [...] This is a rational action; in
           that created the Green Party in Germany, making   of art. Maciunas, for example, created   this case, tree planting. [...] One must
           Beuys one of its founders. Before, in 1967, he   several multiples, such as the Fluxus Boxes,   first create a global understanding to –
           had already created the German Student Party   an idea that would then be used by Beuys.   wherever possible – make such processes
           (Deutsche Studentenpartei) on the eve of the   The use of the video, especially due to   sustainable. (FARKAS, p. 41)
           revolutions of May 1968.         the influence of Nan June Paik, was also
            Then, in 1970, he created the Organization   recurrent in Fluxus, not only because of the   In Seven thousand oaks, Beuys concretizes
           of Non-Voters – Free Plebiscite (Organisation   emergence of the new medium, but because   his idea of “social sculpture” transforming
           der Nicht Wahler, Freie Volksabstimmung), and   of the characteristics it provided, that is, the   the environment. And it does so with the
           in 1971, because of the crisis at the Dusseldorf   possibility of its retransmission, which would   collaboration of those who are willing, so that
           Academy of Art, the Organisation for Direct   also be widely used by Beuys. However, while   each person who lives on Earth can become a
           Democracy by Plebiscite (Organisation fur   the Dada had a negative character, as Giulio   creator of forms, a sculptor, a designer of the
           direkte Demokratie durch Volksbastimmung).   Carlo Argan defines, by “demonstrating the   social organism.
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