Joseph Beuys
(c)SABAM België, 2017 - Courtesy private collection, photo: M HKA, 2017
Rose für Direkte Demokratie, 1973
In 1972 Beuys established a ‘political bureau’ for the Organisation for Direct Democracy Through Free Collective Referendum at documenta 5 in Kassel, Germany. Over the course of the exhibition Beuys engaged with the exhibition visitors, sharing ideas for reshaping society through creative activity, with the emphasis on a peaceful evolution to societal development. The rose and cylinder refer to the rose that stood on Beuys’s desk throughout the exhibition and the slender vase in which it was held. ‘Bud and bloom are in fact green leaves transformed. So in relation to the leaves and the stem the bloom is a revolution, although it grows through organic transformation and evolution.’1
1 Beuys in Caroline Tisdall, Joseph Beuys (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), 275.
Edition: unlimited: numbers 1-440 signed and numbered on certifiate, with handwritten addition "rose", stamped
Edition Staeck, Heidelberg