Starting from Language. Joseph Beuys at 100
June 13–September 19, 2021
Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin
Invalidenstrasse 50/51
10557 Berlin
Germany
www.smb.museum
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On November 20, 1985, Joseph Beuys gave one of his last public speeches at the Munich Kammerspiele as part of the series of events Talking About One’s Own Country: Germany. In it, he said of his development as an artist: “My path, strange as it is, took me by way of language; it did not originate from so-called artistic talent.” Whether thought, spoken, or written, in language Beuys saw a sculptural force through which each individual could participate in a re-ordering of society with their body, mind, and communicative behaviour—that is, to processes that he conceived as part of his sculptural theory. Beuys engages with a wide variety of linguistic phenomena, from silence to extended discussions, from animal-like sounds to precise conceptual analyses and enigmatic writings.
To mark the centenary of his birth, the exhibition Starting from Language at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin explores this power of language through chapters titled Silence, Sounds, Terms, Writing, Secrecy, Legend, and Speaking.
The exhibition encompasses more than 185 sculptures, drawings, installations, films, posters, and documents from the Nationalgalerie Collection, the Marx Collection, the Kupferstichkabinett and the Kunstbibliothek of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz—including the cycle The secret block for a secret person in Ireland. Manifold education offers, also in cooperation with the collective Wiese / مرج der Neuen Nachbarschaft//Moabit, are dedicated to the power and limits of language.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Hatje Cantz and featuring texts by Sandra Burkhardt and Wiese / مرج , Claudia Ehgartner, Barbara Gronau, Kolja Kohlhoff, Maja Naef, Stefan Ripplinger, Nina Schallenberg, Holger Schulze, Tobias Vogt, and Matthias Weiß.
Current and forthcoming exhibitions at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin:
Preis der Nationalgalerie 2021: Lamin Fofana, Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff, Sandra Mujinga, Sung Tieu
September 16, 2021 – February 27, 2022
Scratching the Surface: Works from the Nationalgalerie Collection, the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection im Hamburger Bahnhof and Loans
May 30 – November 7, 2021
Pauline Curnier Jardin: Fat to Ashes
April 13 – September 19, 2021
Current information for visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic can be found here.
Press: presse [at] smb.spk-berlin.de
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