Eurasian staff

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EURASIENSTAB was an action by the German artist Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) in collaboration with the Danish artist and Fluxus composer Henning Christiansen .

Beuys first performed this performance on July 2, 1967 in Vienna in the gallery next St. Stephan as “Eurasienstab 82 min fluxorum organum op. 39” ; then he repeated the action in 1968 in the gallery Wide White Space in Antwerp .

Term definition and concept

EURASIA

The term Eurasia = Eurasia is a combination of words from Europe and Asia . The first sculpture by Beuys Eurasier was created in 1958, it was a figure made of gauze bandages with a rod made of wire, which stands on a felt surface. In the later shamanic performance, Beuys aimed at a critical examination of the Cold War and at a separation and connection or reunification of Western and Eastern cultures. The figure of the figure wrapped in gauze, fabric or felt with a shepherd's staff should still appear often in Beuys' work, for example in the action I like America and America likes Me (1974), in which Beuys allegedly turned himself into a shamanic "Eurasier" stylized. The copper rod should transmit spiritual energy. The EURASIENSTAB performance was entirely in the spirit of the fraternal union of cultures.

"As early as 1967 Joseph Beuys designed a utopian internationality that he called the state 'EURASIA' [...] (Eugen Blume)"

On May 12, 1967, Joseph Beuys unceremoniously founded the fictitious “free democratic socialist state 'EURASIA'” , which he did not want to see in connection exclusively with East or West, but as a connection and an interplay between democracy and socialism . In order to understand the principle of 'EURASIA' one has to include the background of the student movement in Beuys' work of the late sixties. Beuys reflected on the rigid conformism and the restrictive dogmatics of Marxism , Leninism and Maoism .

Preparations for the action

Beuys had discussed the campaign with Henning Christiansen for a long time in advance and sketched and planned it in numerous factory drawings and also - for both campaigns - calculated the room dimensions very precisely. In his notes on the action , he determined the height of the room: “The height of the room in Vienna is given as 3.60 m. The height of the Eurasian rod and the 4 × 90 degree felt angle are based on this. The latter have to find a hold between the floor and the ceiling [...] ” . The solid copper rod had a diameter of 2 cm and weighed approx. 50 kg.

The music

Beuys had commissioned Henning Christiansen to produce the music in advance. Christiansen later on this:

" We talked about dividing 'fluxorum organum' into 5 sections, in the middle of the third sentence, should the Eurasian stick rise and reach the felt corners under the blanket ... "

Each of the five movements had a precise timing and a different tonality .

The sentences:

  • 1st movement 22 min.
  • 2nd movement 12 min.
  • 3rd movement 16 min.
  • 4th movement 17 min.
  • 5th movement 15 min.

This equates to 82 min.

procedure

Vienna, July 2, 1967

During the action, Beuys guided the copper rod, which was previously wrapped in a canvas on the floor, in liturgical gestures through a room, which during Beuys' action at right angles with the four L-shaped felt angles and Pieces of fat and a fat corner was "clothed". The action was accompanied by the organ music of Christiansen. Beuys and Christiansen worked according to the precisely agreed timing for all actions, which is why Beuys often looked at his wristwatch during both actions (Antwerp). According to the music or the beat , Beuys first led his copper stick past the blank, illuminated light bulb hanging from the ceiling, then in all four directions, alternating from top to bottom, according to the music. The curved tip of the staff, similar to a shepherd's staff or crook, was always aimed at the person who carried out the action, the artist himself. Ultimately, Beuys pointed the stick at the fat corner and wrote on the floor: "Image head-moving head <-> the moving isolator" .

Antwerp, February 9, 1968

At the second performance in Antwerp, the Eurasienstab was given a length of 4.08 m, corresponding to the height of the gallery, and the felt angles were also adapted to the height of the room. The action is similar to that in Vienna. During the performance in Antwerp, however, Beuys was recorded on 16 mm black and white film by the cameraman Paul de Fru . The procedure for the recordings followed the instructions of Henning Christiansen.

“ I should make a summary of about 20 minutes and still record everything important on the film. I had to be very careful and plan carefully, and Beuys later said: 'The film is a Beuys' [...] I myself decided that only the first movement and a little of the second movement from “fluxorum organum” for the Film should be used. "

The film

In the very fragmentary film document, Joseph Beuys can first be seen preparing for his action. At the beginning Beuys throws a piece of margarine onto an already existing block of fat; then he ties himself standing in a door frame at a marked point that he will visit again and again during the entire performance, a snowshoe , a metal plate provided with shoelaces, under his right foot. Then he places a stepladder in a corner of the gallery and lines the ceiling and the room with fat corners. Then he begins to position the four felt corners at right angles around a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Then he reveals the canvas Eurasian baton lying on the floor and guides it through the room as in the Vienna action. Beuys repeatedly stands in the door frame and pauses, staring into the camera while he lifts his right foot with the metal plate strapped to it; then he stops the time using his watch. Then he clamps a piece of fat in the back of his right knee. The ritual repeats itself and Beuys leads his Eurasian stick into the next corner of felt. Finally he notes “Bildkopf-Moving Head <-> the moving insulator” with chalk on the floor and leads the stick past the light bulb again. Then invocation gestures follow on one of the felt corners. Finally, Beuys packs the Eurasian rod back into the canvas lying on the floor and dismantles the felt corners. At the end of the film, Beuys positions the four felt corners on one wall of the gallery exactly above the wrapped Eurasian stick and stands again at the marked point; he looks briefly at his work and then turns in the same direction towards the wall. There are short zooms on the fat corners and on Beuys, then the film ends. Beuys later used the film documentation on Eurasienstab in other actions (including in the actions Celtic (Kinloch Rannoch) / Celtic + ~~~ .) The 20-minute film document entitled “Fragment” is a silent film that was later released by Christiansen in Cüsseldorf was added to a church organ. The film shows only the essential elements of Beuy’s action and gives a rudimentary impression. In 1972, the Gerry Schum video gallery in Düsseldorf used a slightly modified version of the original. Joseph Beuys said:

“ I accept all of these things. Both the Schum and the other films. I accept them, but I am not saying that they are necessarily related to video art . They provide fragmentary and rudimentary information about the campaign ... Incidentally, the edition of the 'Eurasian staff' by Gerry Schum is the right one. Initially, sound and image were still separate in the first version. Gerry Schum made it a whole thing. "

The film was published by the Joseph Beuys Media Archive in 2005 as a DVD with an accompanying book (see literature).

literature

  • National Museums in Berlin (Ed.): Joseph Beuys: Eurasienstab , Berlin 2005; with DVD (Steidl Verlag) ISBN 3-86521-194-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heidelberg University of Education ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ph-heidelberg.de
  2. ↑ Joseph Beuys: Eurasienstab , introduction
  3. ↑ a b Joseph Beuys: Eurasienstab , p. 31 ff
  4. ↑ Joseph Beuys: Eurasienstab , p. 41
  5. ↑ Joseph Beuys: Eurasienstab , p. 56