Everyone Is an Artist: Cosmopolitical Exercises with Joseph Beuys

Stiftung Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf Germany, 2021

Everyone is an Artist featured Suzanne Lacy’s work Across and In-Between (2018) and provides profound insight into the cosmopolitical thinking of Joseph Beuys as manifested in his actions. For here—as an acting, speaking, and moving figure—Beuys examined the central and radical idea of his expanded concept of art: “Everyone is an artist”. The goal of his universalist approach was to renew society from the ground up.

In the exhibition, contemporary artists, along with representatives from the most diverse areas of society, enter into a multi-layered, transcultural dialogue with Beuys. From today’s perspective, they confirm, question, and expand his theses on the possibilities of a future conceived in terms of art. The exhibition was in conjunction with “beuys 2021. 100 years of joseph beuys”. A project of the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in cooperation with the Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf as main organizer. The Beuys centennial year stands under the patronage of NRW Minister-President Armin Laschet. (text source)

Curated by Isabelle Malz, Catherine Nichols, and Eugen Blume.