Page 25 - Studio International - September 1971

`beyond doubt the ego is the immortal nucleus of man, by virtue of his creativity and his power of 3 Joseph Beuys
man—let's call it simply his higher nature, which, thought, can introduce new causes which Und in uns ... unter uns . ..landunter 1965
in order to evolve further, incarnates itself'. The determine the future course of history. Because 4 Joseph Beuys
specific mission of man, according to Beuys, is I can see no other possible way in which the Looking at Gilbert & George—Düsseldorf
that of 'incarnating himself' in matter; but future can come into being, if it always results 5 Joseph Beuys
matter as experience, not as determining factor. from the old causes. That way history can only Manresa 1965
This is what Christianity initially understood; peter out and finally disintegrate. History and
and Beuys sees a clear parallel between perverted the future can only exist on the basis of the 6 Joseph Beuys
Fetsraum
science and institutionalized Christianity. Both, possibility of the introduction of new causes by
in his view, began by taking matter seriously as man. He must recognize that this has always
the place of incarnation; both, preoccupied with been so. I see the first, bourgeois revolution as
questioning the cosmos, have since neglected the
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causes and the purpose of the Incarnation.
Here we reach the core of Beuys's thought.
Man is free in so far as he is creative. That is to
say: man can take his own decisions as and when
he finds the point at which he is free, the 'point
of freedom'. This he can only do if he is aware
that the historically conditioned environment
yields no new causes, only effects; it eternally
rehashes existing knowledge.
Something new can enter the world only
through man's individual self-manifestation in
life; all he has to do is to get this clear in his
mind. This is in absolute contradiction to the
sociology which deduces its view of the world
from the questions society asks itself, without
any Archimedean point of reference outside
society. This point of reference, for Beuys, is
freedom; freedom can be attained only through
creativity, and this creativity he calls art. Art is
thus any activity which makes one independent
of the preconditioning represented by society
and its ideas.
`Everything falls into equations with me', says
Beuys. 'Freedom equals self-determination
equals creativity equals art equals man. That is
the justification of the equation "art equals man,
man equals art". This is how I mean it to be
understood, and I am dead serious. This is the
formula I am referring to when I say that every
human being is an artist—because I am talking
about the "point of freedom" that exists within
every individual.' 6
This point of freedom lies in the mind, not in
the environment. 'From the given facts nothing
new can come; that would be merely chewing
the environmental cud. Something new can only
come from elsewhere. I can't create something
new out of the historical nexus. I try to make
clear, over and over again, that what is new
comes from human thought. Not from the
environment, not from what has already come
into being, but from an entirely different region;
man is always bringing something truly new into
the human world. That is what I try to say, and
then of course I am laughed at.'
And with this we reach the twentieth-century
Pilate question: 'What is freedom ?' Beuys can
define it like a shot :
`Freedom is the ability of the individual to bring
into being new causes. Causes that are entirely
new. Not to have recourse to the old causes and
to say: "We are always dependent on the effects
of causes that stem from history, that were the
doing of some particular god, or prince, or king."
The message now, on the other hand, is that
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