Page 43 - Studio International - February 1972

to keep one's balance. In the Kunsthalle in Don't wait until chance washes it up.' His bodily unforced interplay of the polar energy-states of
Baden-Baden he pumped a river through the 'Primary Demonstrations' and also his the material, is even more compellingly
museum—in thick transparent hoses—like 'Interpersonal Relationships', round a 'contact expressed in his use of piled materials. A pile of
Hercules in the Augean stables. And in an table' made of massive constructional timbers, ash is pierced by tunnels, and yet somehow
event which was shown on television he took are often rather too ambitious intellectually and remains uncontaminated in its repose by this
water from the Rhine in twelve cities between tend towards literary showmanship. Rinke's violation of its integrity; it can now be seen
Dusseldorf and Strasbourg, in twelve one-ton strength does not lie in reflection, but in actions through, that is all. Another heap nearby,
barrels, according to a strict timetable. He also which transform everyday occurrences into pierced but not transfixed by rods, emphasizes
brought water from the Atlantic and the unique events involving the individual's whole the contrast. Two compact heaps are connected
Mediterranean, from 'blue lake' and 'backwater', personality. In a recent videotape he is seen by wires like electric connections, or ravel
into the museum in opaque, sealed aluminium swimming under water, coming up repeatedly to themselves up in them. Ruthenbeck is primarily
kegs : museum-ready reality. 'A simple, banal breathe and to spit out water; then there is a cut concerned with the single object; but it is the
action that becomes complex' is his objective. and a contrast : Rinke drinking a litre of water spatial setting that is mainly responsible for the
Complexity is what emerges on the way from an without taking breath. dramatic quality of stillness that his solitary,
action to a state. Rinke does not exhibit; what he Rinke represents the vigorous gambols of conspicuous objects generate. This is not Arte
does is to turn an exhibition hall into a man's 'animal nature'. Reiner Ruthenbeck is Povera —which it even antedates —but the
storehouse of potential action. His pieces are his exact antithesis : consistent tranquillity is materialization of silence. Two anti-actions
invitations to experience the environment the secret of the most consistent and coherent have made Ruthenbeck's objectives particularly
(which has been schematized and turned into a oeuvre on the Dusseldorf scene. He is rather plain. His room at the experimental museum
cliché by habit and expectation) in physical older, too; he was born in 1937, and started off exhibition '14 x 14' at Baden-Baden was totally
terms, as a concrete substance which in our day as a photographer before becoming a member of dark and totally empty. The 'spectators' did not
is either undifferentiated and sealed off (the Beuys's master classes; he has exhibited dare to press forward into the midst of the
spirit no longer moves upon the face of the regularly since 1967, and was represented in darkness, thus putting their sense of orientation
waters) or remains an autonomous process —as important survey exhibitions abroad such as at risk; they kept silent, or edged, whispering,
when one consciously watches a jet of water 'When Attitudes Become Form' and 'Op Losse along the wall to the exit. 'Silence—in a noisy,
splashing against a windowpane. But reality is Schroeven'. At first he created giant wooden busy age, that is the perfect provocation' (Klaus
also open to intervention; it waits to be changed. cutlery, umbrellas and fences, which were still Honnef). And in Gerry Schum's television
You put your hand in a bowl full of pistachio- a little tinged with an aestheticism derived from programme 'Identifications' Ruthenbeck's
green granules of foam plastic, and invisible, African sculpture. Then he concentrated more contribution consisted of a sound-track of paper
hidden waters begin to creak and breathe like a and more on two materials as expressive themes : being torn and crumpled, while one watched
body; a blow on the corner of a ribbed, square cloth, and soft piles of material. His lengths of first a little black crumpled ball, thrown
water container set up square waves which fabric are of that heavy dark red that conveys a heedlessly on the floor, then a growing, dark
move from the outside to the inside; and with suggestion of funerals, of restrained, menacing pile of waste paper, without a single expressive
each successive blow this geometrical wave- solemnity. They are mounted as Rigging, gesture but with an intense sense of drama, and
pattern—the squaring of the circle—can be arranged in soft folds as Hangings, stretched out of an impotent menace on the part of the
intensified. A notice : TURN ON THE TAP; and it across the room as Hurdles. The tension between material—like a Beckett play in paper.
runs, which somehow comes as a surprise. taut and limp, between elastic drape and hard The most conspicuous figure in the young
And then you feel surprise that it should have surface, and the resolution of this tension in the Düsseldorf group, and also the key intellect in

I0
8 Reiner Ruthenbeck
Aschehaufen II 1968
150 cm
9 Reiner Ruthenbeck
Bodenverspannung, Papierhaufen, Ringe
1971
Gallery Ernst, Hanover
10 Sigmar Polke
Tucher 1969
208 x 154 cm

EINEM KOPFSPRUNG
FÜR SEINEN TEXT GESUCHT.
PLOTZLICH SUMMTE ER DIE

MELODIE, ALS DIE OBER F L ACHE
come as a surprise. Every time the aim is to NACH DEM BADE N AN
ruffle the surface of mental habit by setting up
BERLIOZ KAM.
unexpected wave-patterns. The demonstrations
involving the body itself are intended to bring
to the level of consciousness such banal concepts
as left and right, and such habitual norms of
behaviour as aggression and defence, in terms of
basic spatial movements : actions which are
entirely automatic must no longer be done
blindly, but experienced in a true sense,
twenty-four hours a day. 'Live in the centre!

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