Honey pump at work

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The honey pump at work was an installation by the artist Joseph Beuys , which he showed at Documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977 . It was a technical arrangement distributed over several rooms in the Fridericianum , which pumped 150 kg of honey through a circulating hose system. Next to the honey pump, a copper shaft rotated in 100 kg of margarine . The installation included Beuys' presence in the discussion forum of the Free International University, which he co-founded, which was set up near the apparatus, in which he discussed with the visitors on the 100 days of the exhibition.

installation

On the ground floor of the Fridericianum Museum, in a semicircular room, there was a stainless steel container filled with liquid honey , from which an electrically driven food pump conveyed the honey through a galvanized riser up to 18 meters above the stairwell of the Fridericianum. From there it ran back into the stainless steel kettle through a transparent plastic hose. The installation formed a closed circuit system, a total of 173 m of hoses and tubes. Next to the food pump were two electric motors connected by a 2.60 m long copper shaft. This rotated in 100 kg margarine, which was piled between the motors on the floor. There were three vessels in one corner. The semicircular room was not accessible to visitors and could only be viewed from above.

The meeting room of the Free International University (FIU) was located in the immediate vicinity of the honey pump, where Beuys discussed in detail with the visitors. The plastic tubing of the honey pump led through the semicircle of the room under the ceiling (in the corner). At one point on the wall it was looped in multiple turns over thin iron rods. In this way, the room was integrated into the circulating honey cycle.

“ With the honey pump I express the principle of the Free International University of working in the bloodstream of society. In and out of the heart organ - the steel honey container - flow the main arteries through which the honey is pumped with a pulsating sound from the engine room, circulates through the Free University area and returns to the heart. The whole structure is only completed by the people in the room around which the honey artery flows and in which the bees head can be found in the rolled up hose coils with its iron feelers. "

Discussion forum

Beuys was already represented at Documenta 5 in 1972 with an office of the “ Organization for Direct Democracy through Referendum ”, in which a permanent 100-day discussion took place. On the last day there was a “boxing match for direct democracy through referendum”. Five years later, in 1977, he presented the “Honey Pump at Work” - also with a permanent discussion forum, in which he and the visitors discussed his expanded concept of art , social sculpture and direct democracy . This happened as part of a hundred-day forum of the Free International University (FIU), which he had launched on the occasion of his contribution to documenta 6. On the opening day of Documenta 1977 there was a half-hour satellite broadcast by Hessischer Rundfunk to the USA, in which Joseph Beuys presented his idea of ​​social sculpture.

Material 'honey'

Beuys worked with everyday objects and materials that were unusual for art and often translated them into poetic and emotionally charged connections. In addition to traditional artistic materials, he also used fabrics such as fat , felt and honey and rotting materials. He used the material honey and the topic of the bee colony / queen bee several times in his work, for example in:

  • "Queen Bee 3, 1951", wood and wax
  • "From the life of bees: The honey process", watercolors, etc. a., pencil, 1952
  • “ How to explain the pictures to the dead hare ” (Aktion, 1965) - Beuys' head was completely covered with honey, gold leaf and gold dust
  • "Give me honey", signed tin bucket for honey, 1979

Tilman Osterwold: “For Beuys, the bees represent a central complex in the investigation of design potential: work (effort), process (time), energy (light), individuation (worker, queen), socialization (colony, beehive) and product (honeycomb , Honey). The 'hierarchical' structures within the bee colony serve a common goal: to organize, stabilize, shape and maintain coexistence; in this cohesion the 'hierarchical' positions appear to be dissolved again. With the bees, Beuys sets a standard - in the direction of human interests and orientations: it is the assurance of a possibility - also anchored in humans - to create a collective 'image' with individual forces (...). "

In a conversation that the "Rheinische Bienenzeitung" had with Beuys in 1975, the artist went into more detail on the connection between the bee colony / honey and the idea of social plastic : Honey should point to the common way of life of the honeybees and their ability to form states, but not as a state that has to function perfectly, but “in the sense of an organism that has to function perfectly.” The warmth process that arises through social activity can be represented in the bee organism. "This concept of warmth is also connected with the concept of brotherhood and mutual cooperation, and that is why socialists have taken the bee as a symbol, because it happens in the beehive, the absolute willingness to put oneself back and do something for others."

After the documenta

The honey pump at work was taken to the Louisiana Museum in Humlebæk , Denmark , in a disassembled state . Boards that were created during the discussions in the discussion forum found their way into the collection of the Hallen für Neue Kunst in Schaffhausen . The Free International University existed until 1988. It has continued to this day in several places on the initiative of various people in subsequent organizations and offshoots.

literature

  • Johannes Stüttgen : Time congestion. In the force field of Joseph Beuys' expanded concept of art. FIU-Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-928780-22-0 .
  • Klaus Staeck (ed.): Joseph Beuys - Honey is flowing in all directions. Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1997, ISBN 978-3-88243-538-2
  • Clara Bodenmann-Ritter: Joseph Beuys - Everyone is an artist. Conversations at documenta 5/1972. Ullstein TB, ISBN 3-548-34450-X .
  • Volker Harlan, Rainer Rappmann , Peter Schata: Social plastic. Materials for Joseph Beuys. Achberger Verlag, 1984, ISBN 3-88103-012-3 .
  • Joseph Beuys: Entry into a living being. Lecture u. Discussion on August 6, 1977 in Kassel on the occasion of documenta 6, “Honey Pump at Work” ISBN 3-928780-51-4 . (Audio CD)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Lothar Schirmer (ed.), Alain Bohrer (introduction): Joseph Beuys. An overview of the works, 1945–1985. Schirmer / Mosel, Munich / Paris / London 1996, ISBN 3-88814-810-3 , Fig. 131
  2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acHt6zxO74Y descriptive video on Youtube, from minute 7:20
  3. ↑ a b c Everything flows, including honey , FAZ on August 14, 1997, accessed on June 3, 2017
  4. ^ Descriptive video on Youtube, there from minute 6:29, reference to Beuys' original sound
  5. ↑ Free translation after Tisdall (1979), p. 254 [1]
  6. ↑ FIU brochure 1984/1992
  7. ↑ Lothar Schirmer (ed.), Alain Bohrer (introductory): Joseph Beuys. An overview of the works, 1945–1985. Schirmer / Mosel, Munich / Paris / London 1996, ISBN 3-88814-810-3 , Fig. 33
  8. ↑ Tilman Osterwold, Thomas Knubben (ed.): Joseph Beuys: Wasserfarben 1942–1963 , Hatje, Ostfildern-Ruit 1998, ISBN 3-7757-0781-6 , p. 57
  9. ^ Tilman Osterwold: Joseph Beuys: water colors; The processes continue - everything changes. (Pp. 112–130), in: Tilman Osterwold, Thomas Knubben (eds.): Joseph Beuys: Wasserfarben 1942–1963 , Hatje, Ostfildern-Ruit 1998, ISBN 3-7757-0781-6 , p. 118
  10. ^ A b Heiner Stachelhaus : Joseph Beuys. Ecron & List Taschenbuchverlag, Düsseldorf 1991, ISBN 3-612-26230-0 , p. 88.