Beuys
classified 18 (CTBA) SPlease note: This was screened in July 2017
A look at the life and work of groundbreaking German sculptor and performance artist Joseph Beuys.
A sculptor, teacher, political activist, pioneering environmentalist, self-styled shaman, alleged charlatan and proven liar, Beuys was among the greatest postwar artists. Thirty years after his death, Beuys still seems to be a visionary ahead of his time. The film shows him patiently explaining how “money shouldn't be a commodity”, knowing that the money trade would eventually undermine democracy, as well as boxing, lecturing and explaining pictures to a dead hare. He asks with a grin: “Do You Want a Revolution Without Laughter?“ His expanded concept of art leads him straight into the middle of socially relevant debate today.
Using a montage of previously untapped visual and audio sources, director Andreas Veiel and his team have created a one-of-a-kind chronicle. Beuys is not a portrait in the common sense, but instead an intimate look at a human being, his art and his incredible world of ideas.