M HKA Ensembles

Joseph Beuys often used unconventional materials for his work. They perform an important function, providing complex layers of associations as well as personal symbolism. On the one hand, these materials can be linked to Beuys' extended view of art; they embody the tension between geometric and organic, structure and chaos, stagnation and movement, cold and warm. On the other hand, the materials he used are strongly associated with elements from  his biography. For example, fat and felt refer to Beuys' mythical rescue by the Tatars after crash-landing his plane in Crimea during wartime. Under the influence of changing temperature, fat easily transforms from solid into liquid form and vice versa, and for Beuys it thus symbolised the potential of energy and transformation. The artist used felt for its absorbent, insulating and dampening qualities, and it symbolises the important concept of warmth in his work. Honey and beeswax stand both for spirituality and political harmony. Copper stands for the conduction and circulation of energy. Beuys associated sulphur with spiritual warmth and love.

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