Hildegard Weber

This exceptional tribute was first hosted at the Goethe Institute in Paris with an exhibition that opened on 12 May 1986, the date of Joseph Beuys's birthday. The photographs were positioned leaning against the walls, as if taken down, while documents and books on Beuys were displayed on a table in the centre of the space. Video and sound extracts were also played, with the overall effect of prompting reflection and discussion. Hildegard Weber's Homage to Beuys '86 later travelled to various venues across Europe: the Dreiseitel Gallery in Cologne (1986), the Boijmans van Benninger Museum in Rotterdam (1987), the Steirischer Herbst in Graz, Beuys's old studio in Cleves (1991), the Kunstpalast Museum in Dusseldorf (1991), and the Papillon Gallery in Paris, at the same time as the Joseph Beuys retrospective at the Centre Pompidou (1994). For each exhibition, Hildegard Weber redesigned the installation to give it a variety of forms and adapt it over time and space. 

In contrast to the earlier versions of this Homage, recently acquired by the Centre Pompidou, and because Beuys's work is now much more widely discussed than in 1986, Hildegard Weber has left out the documentary part for this exhibition and proposes instead her final reading of the photographic collections that make up the installation. The new presentation of Homage to Beuys '86 focusses on representing the artist in dialogue with his oeuvre, offering a striking perspective of his work from the very beginning of his career. Although Weber does not glorify either the artist or his work, the quality of her insight and her prints endow them with a certain aura. Not without irony, the sound of cicadas replaces the famous 1968 recording of Beuys’s voice repeating the words "Ja, Nee”, which commonly features in commemorative exhibitions today. The rich and abundant display in this space resonates deeply with the plenitude of the neighbouring room, where the felt rolls of Plight, the last piece Beuys made before his death, are installed. 

The majority of the photographs presented are unique prints that testify to Joseph Beuys's major actions and exhibitions. Some have been little documented, like Stallausstellung ("Stable exhibition") in Kranenbourg in 1963, Joseph Beuys's first Fluxus exhibition presented on the farm owned by the Van der Grinten brothers with works from their collections. The exhibition also pays tribute to his participation in major international events: Documenta 4 in Kassel in 1968, Documenta 6 in 1977 where Beuys notably presented the Honigpumpe am Arbeitsplatz ("Honey Pump in the Workplace"), Documenta 7 in 1982 where he conducted the action 7000 Eichen ("7000 oak trees"), and the 37th Venice Biennale in 1976 with the work entitled Straßenbahnhaltestelle I ("Tram stop I"). The famous Zeitgeist exhibition in Berlin in 1982 is also included through depictions of the Hirschdenkmäler installation placed in the atrium of the Martin Gropius Bau museum. 

Another particularly interesting aspect of this photographic ensemble is that it testifies to important moments in Beuys's work in France. A series of images depicts his intervention in the Musée National d’Art Moderne in late 1976 – early 1977, in which we see Beuys installing the work titled Elastischer Fuß, Plastischer Fuß for the imminent opening of the Centre Pompidou. Another series of images documents the installation Dernier espace avec introspecteur, presented in January 1982 at the new venue of the Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert gallery on Rue des Haudriettes in the Marais district. 

Finally, a number of photographic ensembles show Joseph Beuys in his studio – notably in Dusseldorf in 1961 – offering a rare portrait of the artist at work. Weber succeeds in photographing Beuys without breaking his concentration, inviting the viewer into the intimacy of the work process and composing a powerful and subtle portrait of the man and his work. The dialogue established between different series of prints around a given theme, the way images are grouped together and the use of scale consolidate the dynamic that runs through this unique installation and fills the space.