Page 26 - Studio International - September 1971

justified; I also recognize the justice and the things palpable. The basis of the existing idea of
historical function of Marxism, because the university is philosophy, the capacity to
Marxism was a genuinely creative solution which reduce the most varied phenomena to a logical,
had its own limited validity; but it can no longer abstract common denominator; but the abstract
be accepted in tow, because new ideas need to be codifiers of experience, immersed in their own
added to keep it alive and growing. If Marxism problems, have forgotten that man is not only a
breaks down its limitations—which were not formal, logical entity. This is where art comes in.
limitations in 188o, but were entirely new ideas The basis of education must be creativity :
in themselves which have since become making a state of mind sensorially perceptible
limitations—if it overcomes these by adding new through personal action. A person who does a
causes—this is the way to create futurity, and course in philosophy usually doesn't become a
therefore the way to be evolutionary. This is philosopher but an engineer, say, or a teacher;
what I understand by freedom : creativity, in the same way, an education in creativity will
bringing something completely new into the not produce an original 'talent' for the art
world by the power of human thought.' market—which Beuys sees as a highly ephemeral
Freedom is the creative capacity to introduce phenomenon anyway—but a biologist or
new causes into the course of history : this is the agronomist with some confidence in his own
spark that sets off the Beuys explosion. In an solutions. Even if these solutions turn out to be
almost imperceptible, because unexpected, way, wildly unorthodox or horribly wrong, the
Beuys is engaging in philosophical criticism. He individual will have ceased to be a mere
goes at it with a certain naive impetuosity, and functional cog in an all-embracing system. The
this is where a lot of people part company with positivist idea of objective proof is not thereby
him. Until Hegel, all philosophy was also a invalidated; but its claim to be the only
critique of previous philosophers. Kierkegaard, practicable way is overruled, and it becomes one
Marx and Freud each demolished the intact way among many. To this extent art—as
Hegelian system in his own way. In the twentieth creativity physically manifested—equals life.
century, their own thought has been carried As an objective, all this entails the risk of
further, but never absorbed through a process temporary chaos; hence the general disquiet based on an organ, and therefore on a sculptural
of intensive philosophical criticism. Hence the manifested in practice at the Kunstakademie object. The epiglottis is a fantastic piece of
paradoxical situation by which our own century, and in theory in the mass media. Chaos in sculpture—and this is also true in the sense of
which has been transformed like no previous Germany; the right to emotion; the free organic form and the laws governing the sound
century by scientific discovery, has remained development of the individual as society's waves. All this is being demonstrated over and
entirely conditioned by nineteenth-century evolutionary goal; anarchism as the wild oats of over again. But then I go on to call for a stronger
attitudes in its explanation of man himself. the soul; the very word 'soul' itself: all this physical entity than speech. There is physical
Beuys tackles the three main schools — brought into the fray all the functionalist reality in the sound waves, which I can detect
existentialism, Marxism and psychoanalysis— believers in a better age, whether that better age by physical means, through motion. But I want
and sums them up in a philosophical concept lay in the childhood of the nation or in the this to extend itself to the arm, the physical
that has been taboo since the Middle Ages. He classless Utopia. What annoys them about organs; so I take a material and model something
maintains that the thought which passes the Beuys is that he brushes aside their nostalgia for and slap it on the table. It doesn't have to be
impulse to man the transmitter in the receptive the past or the future by simply asking the perfect.'
world of Nature is 'certainly metaphysical in question 'And now ?' When the physical expression of individual
nature'; in other words, also used by Beuys, 'the There is no doubt that Beuys's enormous self-determination is taken as the basis of a
old problems are on the agenda again'. ability as a teacher, his capacity to talk over the system of teaching, there are political
problems of the young, tirelessly and consequences to be drawn; and Beuys draws
Beuys represents the revolt of the imperturbably, has been a decisive factor in his them. In opposition to today's ersatz system, in
transcendental aspirations of man; he refuses to success. Among the countless things he has said which consumption stands in for happiness and
ignore the questions of where the transmitter about the purpose of education this seems to me party decisions for democracy, Beuys demands
receives its information from, and where it goes to be the most characteristic: that the first article of his country's constitution
to. And he draws confirmation from the ideas of `I personally attach very great importance to the should be taken seriously : 'All power proceeds
a generation of young people who have imported fact that something psychic turns into a physical from the people.' In an interview with
Zen by way of Underground culture, who product. And so I always urge students not only Chancellor Willy Brandt he demanded the
refuse to have their aims and achievements to think but to project their thinking further. It freedom of information which is enshrined in
dictated in advance, and who seek to find out has to be realized that thinking is a sculpture in the constitution, but which in his view does not
something about themselves. And when the itself—and that you get a really fantastic exist in the mass media because they allow the
education they receive sets out to reduce self- sculpture when you speak. This has a good effect radical non-party opposition (APO) hardly any
discovery to a minimum, they turn to drugs, on their use of language; students simply must say. The aim of this extension of freedom would
synthetic self-discovery, images produced by the learn to speak. It's vital that mankind should be to prepare the way for referenda, popular
organs of the body. A responsible teacher, in slowly learn to speak, come out of its dumbness; decisions on matters of basic rights such as the
Beuys's view, must always point out that in the and this applies above all to the man in the street. distribution of property and the means of
end freedom is never achieved through pseudo- They must learn to see that they fundamentally production, education, defence, fighting
experiences in the subconscious, but through know an enormous amount, and that official pollution. He does not want referenda of the
`intensified thought'. education just doesn't make it possible for them kind they have in Switzerland, which deal with
In the view of today's society, anyone who to clarify their feelings and thoughts into words; specific issues : that would be fatal as long as
declares thought to be the primary field of which amounts to saying that it doesn't make it increased specialization makes specific
experience must necessarily develop into an possible for them to work together with other knowledge on individual questions inaccessible.
abstract scientific thinker. Beuys says precisely human beings within the conceptual field. But he also rejects elections such as are held
the opposite: the task of thought is to make Speaking is certainly a sculpture, because it's today in the western democracies, in which the
68