since my childhood beuys has been present, as inspiration, as confrontation, as ancestor of my parent's art endevour as their teacher, as a thinker, a painter, a craftsman. in a couple of days it would have been his 100 birthday. as problematic his televisible heroism and his political aspirations were, his work is of soft and delicate beauty, touching children's hearts as well as those grown up. 
i remember sticking reed branches into the earth of a path near a lake somewhere as my first concious thought of an artistic practice, remember my first visit to berlin and the typical small constructions sites with its laydown of materials, remember the long hours i spent in palazzo regale in the k20 in düsseldorf discovering a secret mirror-passage behind a vitrine - a lot of presence for a dead man. a hiatus of thought to whish the felt love to his works transmits back into what he knew. happy birthday beuys!

the image is from a 1982 whiskey commercial beuys did in japan in order to promote his 7000eichen work, the sound is from the beuys piece jajajaja - nenenene from 1968, upright bass and piano by me. (apparently beuys was inspired by the lamentations at a funeral he visited, but it is also a very niederrhein sound, a very distinct regional narrative style. it is an hour long, but the variations never gets boring i think). anyway have a nice workers day and don't burn my house down please.

0521 01 ja-nee (for beuys)

grischenka