{"id":46497,"date":"2017-02-21T14:29:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T13:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=46497"},"modified":"2017-02-21T14:29:59","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T13:29:59","slug":"joseph-beuys-doc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/joseph-beuys-doc\/","title":{"rendered":"A Conversation with the Director of the Must-see Joseph Beuys Doc"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beuys<\/em> is an engaging documentary biopic of the provocative visual and performance artist Joseph Beuys.\u00a0<\/a>Premiering\u00a0as part of the Berlinale competition, the film makes a pretty strong case for the artist’s preeminent importance in the post-WW2 art world. Yet, Beuys was not only an artist, but a politician, too, believing that all people could use art as a social tool within which to change the world. We talked to the director\u00a0Andres Veiel about what inspired him to make the movie, how Beuys was ahead of his time and how his ideas are still relevant today.<\/p>\n

\"Andres Andres Veiel. Photo by Arno Declair<\/p>\n

Beuys was provocative. He says in the film to throw away the\u00a0pieces of art and think about the ideas<\/em> of art.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SLEEK: You say that Beuys was like “a hero” to you. Can you explain why?<\/strong> \nAndres Veiel: I grew up in a suburb of Stuttgart. Petit-bourgeois. Everybody was taking care about clean roads. So to think about a “fat corner,” in Stuttgart is impossible. Beuys was provocative. He broke up the walls of the museum. He says in the film to throw away the\u00a0pieces of art and think about the ideas<\/em> of art. This challenged\u00a0me and my friends. Beuys was behind like a godfather, inspiring us to\u00a0provoke these stiff and stubborn structures of this suburb of Stuttgart.
\nHe was also\u00a0an antipode during these years to the RAF. In Stuttgart at that time, the trial of the Bader Meinhoff gang took place. People were very dogmatic. He was opening the windows, in a way, putting oxygen into both reaches of the bourgeois and this dogmatic, left, radical way of thinking. This was a good impulse for me and my friends to find our own way in-between.
\nDo you think Beuys was ahead of his time?<\/strong> \nYes, that was one of the reasons to make this film. For me it was a rediscovery in 2008\/2009. There was a show at Nationalgalerie, Hamburger Bahnhof<\/a>.\u00a0It was an inciting moment when I saw two or three films of his on the monitor. He was talking about money flow and describing the conditions of the financial crisis. Money flows increasing by themselves, detached from the production sphere. And we have bubbles, and these bubbles will burst. Profits are privatised, very few will take the profits, and losses are socialised. And that’s a sphere out of our democratic control.
\nSo he was encouraging me to go into the issue. Even if it’s economics. I couldn’t say I was dealing a lot with economics before. I felt that the financial crisis was like a wake-up call that I had to deal with as an artist. Then I thought, why not just make a film about my godfather?<\/p>\n

\"Andres From “Beuys,” 2017<\/p>\n

We’re in gloomy dark times, so its hard to laugh. But I think sometimes humour\u00a0is not only an escape but a source of strength.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What would Beuys do now? Would he be on Twitter?\u00a0<\/strong> \nHe would argue. He believed in the very end that even if it took hours, months, years, he could convince somebody. I think he would find a new party, but at least he would go to Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) and talk to them, believing in the better argument. It’s a question of “how do you want to spend your lifetime?” He really believed, that by his presence, he would reach someone who was lost in other spheres of prejudice.
\nDo you think that the left-wing and the art world, unlike Beuys, has lost the ability to laugh?<\/strong> \nJa. OK we’re in gloomy dark times, so it’s hard to laugh. But I think sometimes humour\u00a0is not only an escape, but a source of strength.\u00a0If we laugh, we are not stiff and stubborn. Humour, even if it’s close to the abyss,\u00a0to the black hole, is a source of energy.
\nThe Seven Thousand Oaks is an example of a G<\/em>esamtkunstwerk. <\/em>Do you think there are any artists today who are carrying on this spirit and sense of scale?\u00a0<\/strong> \nIn fact yesterday, I learned in Chicago, someone will plant 7000 oaks<\/a>. The spirit of Beuys is still floating by itself. It’s still present in many parts in the world. This is good, because we need this Gesamtkunstwerk.\u00a0<\/em>If people are willing to pick up something, willing to get connected to what I call this battery, then this film is a good chance to get connected to this battery. From\u00a0dealing with Beuys und<\/em> dealing with new things. Not just celebrating a hero of the past century, but taking his spirit and taking it to the next century.<\/p>\n

\"Andres From “Beuys,” 2017<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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