[This is adapted from a two-channel video installation of the same name I presented at Birch Libralato in conjunction with the Images Festival in Toronto in 2011. The footage is from reel-to-reel video documentation of the lecture Joseph Beuys gave at NSCAD in 1976 on the occassion of his honorary degree. The blackboard he produced was gifted to the school and is now in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.]

 

The Root Problem of the World

THE THINGS WHICH YOU EXPRESS AND MOULD OUT IN MATERIAL OBJECT FORM IN LANGUAGE BECAUSE LANGUAGE IS OBJECT IS MATERIALIZED IS MATERIALIZED THOUGHT THE THOUGHT LIES BEHIND THE MATERIAL BORDER AS THE EMBODIMENT LIES OF HUMANKIND'S PERSONALITY BUT AS LONG YOU ARE A A A HUMAN BEING LIVING ON IN EARTHLY CONDITIONS BETWEEN BIRTH AND DEATH YOU CAN ONLY EXPRESS IN OBJECTS YOU CANNOT OVERCOME OBJECTS

IT LOOKS IN THIS VISUALIZATION LIKE A SYMBOL FOR THE TURNING OF THE TIME CAUSE ALL PRINCIPLES NARROW MORE AND MORE BECOME MORE AND MORE CRITICAL AND THEN ON THE OTHER SIDE IT OPENS IT IS EXACTLY THEREFORE A SYMBOL FOR WHAT ONE COULD COULD COULD CALL OR NAME THE TURNING OF THE TIME IT IS ALREADY A KIND OF PROPHECY

THEREFORE THIS CUTTING CUTTING OF THE CULTURE OF THE MYTH IS NO OTHER THING LIKE CUTTING A KIND OF UMBILICAL CORD THEREFORE THE WHOLE COSMICAL WORLD WAS DESIGNED AS A KIND OF A WOMB LIKE A PLACENTA

THE POSSIBILITY TO BECOME ILL TO BE TO GROW OLD TO BECOME SCLEROTIC TO GO TO DEATH NEVERTHELESS

STEP BE STEP THE ARTIST FUNCTIONS LIKE A JESTER IN THE SOCIETY HE'S ALREADY OUTSIDE THE WORLD AS FAR AS HE HAS AN IMPORTANCE FOR ALL ACTIVITIES Y'KNOW AS FAR AS ONLY FOR ADDRESSING THIS EGOTISM OR ME BEHAVE HE'S ALREADY OUT OF THE WORLD

YEAH SEEMS TO ME THAT YOU HAVE AN IMPULSE TO ELIMINATE HISTORY BUT WHAT CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT YOU THEN TRY TRY TO CONSTRUCT A THING BY OR ARBITRARILY ARBITRARY THING AND NOT A A LOOKING FOR FACTS WAS NOT YESTERDAY THE EARTHQUAKE IN ITALY IS IT NOT HISTORY OR WAS IT NOT THE STUDENTS WAS IT NOT THE STUDENT'S MOVEMENT IN GERMANY 1900 68 IT WAS I EXPERIENCED IT AND I CANNOT ELIMINATE THEREFORE HISTORY TAKE HISTORY IN A SENTIMENTAL WAY YOU HAVE TO SEE AS AS FACT IS IT NOW 3 O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON SOME PEOPLE RECEIVE THE DEGREE AND ME TOO THIS BELONGS TO HISTORY IT'S VERY SIMPLE YOU WILL CUT AWAY YOUR WHOLE PAST YOU'RE YOU ARE NEVER PROPERLY BORN