MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

This work used by Beuys for his performance as part of the Salto Arte circus event in Brussels in 1975, which coincided with the Je - Nous = Ik – Wij exhibition at the Museum of Ixelles curated by Harald Szeemann. The work is directly related to the larger installation Fond IV/4 exhibited in Je - Nous = Ik – Wij. The circus event was organised to raise funds for Isi Fiszman and Jean-Claude Garot's leftist magazine Pour. Between 1954 and 1984, Beuys made a series of works with the title Fond (meaning 'base', but also 'background') which all thematise the storage and emission of energy.