MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Joseph Beuys makes Grond at the beginning of the 1980s, at the height of his political engagement. The office furniture – from a Berlin gallery – refers to the creative energy that can arise in an average office. The metal chair, the desk and the file cabinet stand against three ensembles of each five copper plates in a wooden formwork. On a fourth ensemble of copper and wood, there's a loudspeaker through which Beuys voice occasionally can be heard. He sighs: 'Jetzt brechen wir hier den Scheiss ab' (Let's break down the shit here). The page from the Frankfurter Runschau of 23 December 1978 with Joseph Beuys' article Aufruf zur Alternative is part of Grond.