Joseph Beuys
We are the revolution
Museum of Modern Art of Bahia
The largest retrospective ever dedicated to the work of German artist Joseph Beuys in Brazil arrives at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, in Salvador, after being seen by 40,000 people at SESC Pompeia, in São Paulo. Joseph Beuys – We are the revolution features over 250 works, including posters, multiples, actions and documentaries produced in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Organized by curator Antonio d’Avossa and general curator Solange Farkas, president of Associação Cultural Videobrasil and director of the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, the exhibition reveals the diversity of strategies used by the artist to spread political and philosophical propositions, laying bare the communication project behind one of the 20th century’s most influential bodies of work.
“Beuys’ artistic production aims at freeing up the individual through art, the starting point for social change,” says Solange Farkas. “His ingenious ideas, his elaborate way of appropriating himself of materials, his amazing capacity for plastic formulation and his technical mastery have made him the artist that has best approached the issue of the multiplicity of the work of art.”
Joseph Beuys – We are the revolution bears witness to a period of intense artistic and political activity during which Beuys sought bigger audiences for his concept of social sculpture, joins the German environmentalist party The Greens, helps establish the Organization for Direct Democracy by Referendum and establishes the Free International University. It is within this context that he starts using multiples and graphic materials as vehicles to propagate ideas.
To Antonio d’Avossa, a Contemporary Art History professor at Accademia di Brera/Milan and the curator of retrospectives such as Operazione Difesa della Natura (Barcelona, 1993), posters and multiples are “a true arsenal of advertisement” for social sculpture and the expanded concept of art. “Through them, Beuys outlines a strategy that is parallel to his work and integrated to it,” he claims.
An intense educational programme accompanies the exhibition in Salvador. The activities, which are free of charge, gravitate around the Free International University in Bahia, a symbolical headquarter for the institution established by the artist in the 1970 to promote reflection on the present and future of society.
Joseph Beuys – We are the revolution will remain at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (www.mam.ba.gov.br until February 13, 2011. To learn more, go to www.sescsp.org.br/beuys).
Videobrasil
Associação Cultural Videobrasil is an organization geared towards producing and spreading knowledge on contemporary art. In partnerhip with SESC São Paulo, it promotes major exhibitions such as Sophie Calle – Take care of yourself (São Paulo and Salvador, 2009), and Joseph Beuys – We are the revolution, as well as the International Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil, which has become a reference in artistic production from the world’s geopolitical South.
Atlas Group, William Kentridge, Kendell Gears, Marcel Odenbach, Kenneth Anger, Coco Fusco and Peter Greenaway are among the artists who have been featured in its exhibitions, festivals, documentaries and publications.
The 17th International Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil (September 2011) accepts enrolments for its competitive exhibition until March 10. Artwork of various natures will be accepted: videos, installations, performances, artist books and other artistic experiments. The works selected will compete for a prize in cash and eight artistic residency prizes, awarded in partnership with institutions in Latin America, Europe and Asia.
For further information on the activities of Videobrasil, please visit www.videobrasil.org.br.
