Defense of Nature
I am reading Lucrezia De Domizio Durini's excellent book 'The Spirituality of Joseph Beuys'. In paricular the section entitled: 'Defence of Nature - Discussion by Joseph Beuys 13 May 1984 - Bolognano'.
Beuys' answers an accusation that 'his message is a bit utopian, if you considered that it is addressed to the same adult society that has partly destroyed this nature' in the following manner, and I quote from the book:
Joseph Beuys: 'First of all, it has been said that all these ideas are utopian, and this leads us to discuss the meaning that we attribute to the word 'utopian'. This word is used in several different ways, and we must speak of at least two of the meanings that it indicates. For some people the word 'utopian' describes a totally irrational vision of the world; such a vision gives to the word 'utopian' a certain poetical and artistic quality: but it remains as something to be considered impossible for application in real life. The people who use the word 'utopian' in this way implicitily maintain that it would be better to look for some other kind of message if we want to effect a real and desirable change in society. They speak of the idea of 'Utopia' as something completely negative. But there are other people who use this word differently, and they sometimes feel the need to speak of a 'concrete Utopia', when they want to make it plain that they are interested in a long term project for a possible reality, or a real plan for the genuine freeing of the human race in the future. It is a matter for looking for an indication of the direction in which we must move.........We must be able to give a description of the way in which the society of the future will find its base and its starting point in the realm of the spirit, in human creativity, and in the freedom of spirit of the free individual. We must see the methods of organisation and of self-determination.We have to be able to speak about how to organise the places where the most important of human assets are produced, and I mean those places in which man's faculties themselves can improve, that is the schools, the universities, the various other institutions, the agricultural fields and all other scientific activities. We have to know how all this is to be organised. And so, I am already speaking about the problem of human freedom. When we talk of freedom, we talk of the way in which each individual is a free and unique personality. In the area of the spirit, and also, let's say, of culture, each individual that dwells on this earth is unique and has his own particular forms of creativity, his own individual creative needs. Every individual represents a world unto himself. When we speak of creativity and, therefore, of freedom, we speak of the world in which every person is different. Our principal anthropological problem is to find a way to relate the nature of the individual to another equally absolute necessity: to live in a society founded on the principle of equality before the law. Even if each individual represents a unique and differentiated world in a modern, democratic society, some type of regulator, which can give us the possibility of freedom from every kind of social or economic authority, is still necessity. This means that all these individual personalities must be equal before the law. Here, yet again, we can see the way in which the concept of democracy is normally abused.
When democracy is understood as an ideology and a theory that leads to the acquisition of political power, it can be presumed that it means that every one is equal. The idea of freedom, however, means that everyone is different, and the idea of democracy should simply mean that everyone is equal before the law. Therefore it is actually a matter of two strata of extremely different kinds of power, within the same social body. On the one hand, everyone has to have his or her own free inner creativity. On the other hand, there must be equality before the law and therefore all freedom must be regulated, since freedom must be limited when it infringes on the freedom of another individual. We need both of these powers, and we must make sure that they exist within two different strata of the creativity of the social body. It follows, then, that we gradually start to understand the social body as an organism. The last, but not least important, result of the correct articulation of freedom and of law - or of freedom and democracy - is the further, and even more radical, development of our anthropological powers. It is inconceivable for these powers to be limited by the particular course of the historical development of any particular nation: it is unacceptable, for example, that they are endangered by a state based on the existence of political parties. Our whole understanding of an enlarged concept of anthropological art is based on the conviction that human creativity will manage to find a way of articulating a constitution. This is based on the idea that creativity will be able to produce a catalogue of laws that will express the new regulating principles for the use of money in the field of economy. Freedom in the field of creativity, and that capacity and intelligence that we all possess, will find a way, in the future, to express an idea for a really democratic constitution: and this future democratic constitution will certainly want to overcome certain characteristics regarding parliament and parties appertaining to the present private capitalist system. This future democratic constitution will write in block capitals that we are the state. It will recognise that the most sovereign of all powers is creativity. The implications of the ideaof creativity become more and more ample, and in the end they reveal that the only soverign body in the state is the free individual. In the end, the idea of creativity is equivalent to the statement that each one of us, individually and collectively, are the representatives of the social order and of the state. Everyone of us is soveriegn and since every one of us is an individual who possesses an enormous creative power, wecannot be incapable of formulating a constitution that will express new financial and economic laws. These new laws - new, democratic, and produced by free and sovereign individuals - will create a radically different economic system that will depend on a different usage of money.....The idea of capital will undergo a radical change and will be seen from an anthropolical viewpoint. It will no longer be presumed, for example, that capital consits of money or other means of production; it will be understood that the only real capital that humanity possesses is our capacity to produce and our creativity as individuals.. According toa trully anthropological concept of capital, we learn that capital and the human spirit are one and the same thing. The use of our capacitie in the various work placesthat exist in society requires social credit, and this means getting credit from a banking system that is trully democratic, and that operates parallel to the elementary processes of creativity and to the products that derive from these. From this viewpoint, the only economic value to be recognised is human creativity and what this produces. The primary economic value is creativity, that is, the spirit and the capacity of human beings, as individuals, and as highly dignified individuals, too. And this dignity results in the quality of what is produced by those who possess it. In such a system, there exists no possibility of profit, no possibility of abusing or not recognising the individual's dignity in the workplace in order to create profits for a minority. '
How many of us sense that our present economic and political systems cannot last?
I write this on the eve of an emergency summit meeting of the 17-strong eurozone members to try to find a solution to the Greek Debt Crisis. Yesterday the IMF warned that a failure to agree on an effective solution would be 'very costly not just for the eurozone but for the global economy'. And the financial markets seem nervous that the European financial system will collapse under the weight of the eurozone's sovereign debt crises, and the danger then exists of it spreading from relatively small economies such as Greece and Ireland to Italy and Spain – nations that would be not only "too big to fail" but "too big to save".
Yesterday also saw Rupert and James Murdoch at a select committee hearing in London concerning the phone-hacking scandal. On the same day the relationship between the metropolitan police, News International and government ministers was under scrutiny.
Today it is estimated that 10 million people have been affected in East Africa by the worst drought in more than half a century. More than 166,000 desperate Somalis are estimated to have fled their country to neighbouring Kenya or Ethiopia.
Something has to change.
Below are comments by Lucrezia De Domizio Durini on a current exhibition she has co-curated with Tobia Bezzola. The information is from the website http://www.1fmediaproject.net
JOSEPH BEUYS Difesa della Natura
13 May – 14 August 2011
http://www.kunsthaus.ch/
BEUYS VOICE A BOOK BY LUCREZIA DE DOMIZIO DURINI | KUNSTHAUS ZURICH
Bar.ssa. Lucrezia De Domizio Durini
Palazzo Durini – 65100 – Bolognano (Pe) – Italia
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Notes on the Event in Zurich by Lucrezia De Domizio Durini
THE ZURICH KUNSTHAUS, 12 MAY 2012
Exposition: JOSEPH BEUYS Difesa della Natura
Curators Tobia Bezzola and Lucrezia De Domizio Durini
12 May 2011, on the 90th anniversary of Joseph Beuys’ birth
My DONATION of all the philological and historical materials related to the operation Joseph Beuys Difesa della Natura, on display at the Zurich Kunsthaus, was a gesture that I felt duty-bound to make, in the interests of the history of Art as a whole, in order to ensure that the last masterpiece of the German master’s Italian period was protected and kept in one of the world’s most important museums of modern and contemporary Art.
Now I can take comfort in the thought that nothing of mine will be lost.
The entire event in Zurich has left me extremely pleased and satisfied, though this in no way makes up for my bitter disappointment over the fact that Italy, a country which Beuys so loved, spending more time here than in any other nation in the world, to the point where the Abruzzo region, in particular, was practically his second home, has not shown anywhere near the same love for the German master, much less recognised the accomplishments, in terms of human and social concerns, of one of the most unique, outstanding figures in the worldwide history of Art from the end of the Second World War onward.
Once again, Italy has missed out on an enormous opportunity….
There was not a single Italian critic at the event … no representatives of any Italian institutions… no museum directors. Only critics, collectors, museum directors and cultural figures from countless other European countries…. plus so many friends, as well as artists, both Italian and, in large number, foreign artists too.
A network of highly aware individuals who, in their different areas of expertise, and during my 40 years of independent, uncompromising, unflagging and impassioned efforts, I have always attempted to involve, so that their knowledge could benefit all of Humanity.
I have never received any sponsorship from government bodies, much less from private parties: nothing but nourishment for my spirit from prestigious men and women whose knowledge has provided sustenance to my actions. To these generous people I extend my heartfelt thanks.
THE BOOK
It proved to be an immense effort… starting back on 17 June 2008, when the Director, Dr. Christoph Becker, first expressed a desire to hold the Exposition.
I conceived of the publication BEUYS’ VOICE as a Virtual Living Sculpture in which Beuys’ Voice would speak to humanity for the purpose of a possible social renewal, and all those who generously provided their invaluable contributions are leading figures well acquainted with the fundamental principles of the work and thought of Joseph Beuys, having assisted, through a wide variety of approaches, in spreading those same principles, especially after the Master’s death.
The images in the book, immortalised by the magic camera lens of Buby Durini, belong to the De Domizio Durini historical archives, whose 33,000 photographs document unmistakable locations and projects carried out jointly in many countries of the world.
The publication, approximately 1000 pages in length and illustrated with 400 photos, was requested by the Zurich Kunsthaus and produced by the prestigious Electa-Mondadori publishing house in Milan, which once again demonstrated the prestige of its graphic works, as well as the commitment and understanding it contributes to such efforts.
This one-of-a-kind volume will be of use both to those not acquainted with Beuys and to those who know him well but want to know more.
THE EXHIBITION
The key element is the sculpture OLIVESTONE, the last great work by the German master Joseph Beuys, donated to the Kunsthaus by myself and by Buby Durini on 12 May 1992, following a sequence of events and developments in Italy: Beuys’ last great masterpiece, in Defence of Man and Safeguarding Nature.
The works, the sculptures, the drawings, the publication, the photos, the giant enlargements, the documents and the videos are all part of the work that I carried out in direct connection with the German master, and which was carried to many countries of the world by Beuys himself in the last 15 years of his life.
THE LAYOUT
Already found in the book BEUYS’ VOICE, as a floor plan, the layout was created by myself and deliberately changed. When I arrived at the Kunsthaus on April 30th to set up the exhibit, I sensed a sort of magical flow that led me to change the initial labyrinth-like design into a free, open space, in keeping with Beuys’ concepts. With highly prestigious, hands-on assistance from Prof. Tobia Bezzola, the exhibition was prepared. Our aim was to imbue the exhibition with a sense of serene tranquillity, allowing visitors to move about the space freely, so as to absorb the spiritual message of a world of peace that only a special type of awareness can partake of …
This was our intent … and hopefully we have succeeded….
THE RESULT
Creativity, my love for Art and a rigorous professional approach were what won over the administrators of the Kunsthaus, as well as the hard-working manual labourers and the rest of the staff, all of them as active as they were conscientious.
I am happy to be part of a place where the sole factor determining the quality of a work is the personality – both scientific and analytic – of the subject.
The emotions experienced in those days, the conferences, the interviews, the exchanges and the memories, both distant and close at hand, all coexist in an overriding work that belongs to the very existence of Art and to the quality of human life: Joseph Beuys’ dream for improving our existence.
THE FUTURE
A new adventure in Art and beyond Art … Paris… Zurich… the World …
Lucrezia De Domizio Durini
Bolognano 18 May 2011
Also see http://www.kunsthaus.ch/
