The first performances by Joseph Beuys were a radical turning point for
twentieth-century art. Beuys saw art as a transformative action that is
both personal and communal, and his expanded artistic practice engaged
spirituality, personal mythology, political structures, and symbolic
materials. For Manresa, one of his legendary performance actions,
which took place on December 15, 1966 in Düsseldorf, he collaborated
with the Danish artists Henning Christiansen and Bjørn Nørgaard.
This book presents never-before-seen materials from the performance,
including texts, images, scripts, and preparatory drawings, alongside
contributions from scholars and critics that offer further insight.
Friedhelm Mennekes, an art critic and Jesuit priest, analyses Saint
Ignatius of Loyola's imprint on Beuys's work while elucidating its
spiritual complexity, looking beyond the popular vision of the artist as
shaman. Pilar Parcerisas examines Beuys's spiritual geography,
explaining the importance the town of Manresa within it and also laying
out the physical and mystical coordinates of Eurasia, a site that was
always present in Beuys's work. Klaus-D. Pohl addresses the paradoxical
union between Beuys's mysticism and the neo-Dadaists of Fluxus. Beuys's
collaborator Bjørn Nørgaard recalls his time working with the German
artist and reflects on the paths he opened up. Finally, art historian
Harald Szeemann considers the possibility of liberating politics through
spirituality.
