Easel, two blackboards with chalk writing, chair with score collage, scissors, grease corner
Dimensions variable
KML 05.01
Joseph Beuys – performance artist, sculptor, draftsman and theoretician – devoted himself to the study of the humanities, social philosophy and anthroposophy with great intensity. His studies led him to the conclusion that the concept of art must be expanded to include the idea of "social sculpture" and its role in forming society. Based on his conviction that all people can play a creative, participatory role in shaping society and poli tics, Beuys defined social sculpture as a gesamtkunstwerk, an allinclusive work of art. Hence, when he was substantially involved in founding the new Greens party in the late 1970s, it was only logical that he should consider it a work of art.
The installation Raum 3, die ganze deutsche Nachkriegslyrik bestehend aus "Ausge rutscht!" "Partitur aus: der ganze Riemen" d.h. (ausgerutschter Raum) [Room 3, All of Germany's Postwar Poetry Consisting of "Slipped! " "Score from: der ganze Riemen" i.e. (Slipped Room)] was actually created in "room 3" , the artist's personal studio at the Dus seldorf State Art Academy. In 1979, Beuys converted "room 3" into an office and infor mation centre for the Free International University (FIU) that he had founded in 1972. The elements of the installation unite the qualities that characterise Beuys, the "activist" : he used to sit on the chair when he conversed with his students; the easel, which has been knocked over, was only used as a support for his blackboards, symbolizing Beuys' proclamation of the end of painting; the Fat Corner evokes the energy and warmth fun damental to Beuys' thought; and the collage of a score next to a pair of scissors indi cates the artist's interest in interdisciplinary cultural work. Slipping, losing one's footing, ordinarily happens in a room, but here the room itself has "slipped" alluding to the nature of intellectual and artistic life in postwar Germany.
