BEDBURG-HAU.- For the first time, the internationally renowned artist Marina Abramović, together with the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), ventures into a direct artistic dialogue with the legacy of Joseph Beuys, one of the most influential pioneers of performance art. It also marks the first occasion on which the MAI and the participating artists engage in a long-term project with the collection of an institution. Back in 2005, Abramović reperformed Beuys’ iconic performance “How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The exhibition at Museum Schloss Moyland brings together the documentation of both performances and presents them in the context of historical archival materials, sculp- tures and drawings by Beuys from the museum’s collection.

In March, as part of an interdisciplinary residency program, a group of thirteen international performance artists was invited to explore Beuys’ artistic approach and to develop new site-specific performances for Museum Schloss Moyland. These long-durational performances will be presented throughout the exhibition in the museum’s castle and park grounds. By doing so, the exhibition expands the framework for engaging with the work of both Beuys and Abramović, offering new perspectives on the intersections of performance, artistic actions and archival research.

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ MEETS JOSEPH BEUYS – AN ARTISTIC CONNECTION ACROSS GENERATIONS

A central focus of the exhibition is Joseph Beuys’ iconic 1965 performance “How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare” and its re-performance by Marina Abramović. Beuys first presented this performance in Düsseldorf: covered in honey and gold leaf, he pushed and pulled the dead hare through the space of Schmela Gallery, using his hands and teeth.

Forty years later, Marina Abramović placed Beuys’ work in a new context. In her legendary performance series “7 Easy Pieces” (2005) at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, she reconstructed iconic works of performance art – including Beuys’ work. For the first time, the exhibition presents these two side by side. While Beuys, a man of the German wartime generation, once “explained” the pictures to the hare, that role is now taken up by a woman and artist from the postwar generation of communist Yugoslavia. This creates a unique opportunity to experience the symbolic meaning this performance from two distinct perspectives – within the newly reopened exhibition hall of the museum.

Since the 1960s, Joseph Beuys has played a defining role in the later development of performance art. By expanding his sculptural practice and using his own body as a medium, he paved the way for generations of artists to follow. Marina Abramović, Ulay, and many others belong to his successors.

A NEW GENERATION OF INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ARTISTS

The interdisciplinary residency program brings together thirteen outstanding performance artists from different parts of the world to engage with the legacy of Beuys and Abramović. For the first time, the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) is implementing a residency at Museum Schloss Moyland, within which new performances are being developed. Inspired by Beuys’ works, the museum’s collection, and its archival materials, the performers have created new pieces conceived specifically for Museum Schloss Moyland and its surrounding park. The performances take place daily during regular opening hours – eight hours each day, and extended to ten hours on every third Thursday of the month.

With their individual perspectives, cultural backgrounds, and performative approaches, the artists explore the thinking of Joseph Beuys and translate his impulses into a contemporary context. The resulting performances not only activate the museum’s Beuys holdings in entirely new ways but also foster a direct and dynamic interaction between art, site, space, and visitors.

Sandra Johnston is particularly interested in the connections Joseph Beuys had with Ireland, where he played a key role in shaping the contemporary art scene. Martin Tolofiu explores ritualistic actions in Beuys’ practice. Michelle Samba focuses on Beuys’ critique of institutions and bureaucracy, linking it to her own biography. In his subtle reflections on the body in nature, Eşref Yıldırım reveals poetic-performative dimensions. Luisa Sancho-Escanero, Evan Macrae Williams, and Yan Jun Chin from Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern also show a strong interest in physicality – especially in the dance-like elements of Beuys’ draw- ings and performance work. In her performance, Virginia Mastrogiannafii draws on the European Constitution and the speeches of Anacharsis Cloots – a forward-thinking revolutionary from Kleve whom Beuys revered as an intellectual predecessor. Maria Stamenfiović Herranz investigates the connections between political unrest and collective revolutionary action, both in Beuys’ time and today. Isaac Chong Wai, who participated in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2024 and had already realized a project in dialogue with Beuys at Museum Schloss Moyland in 2022, translates Beuys’ interest in everyday actions and materials into a transformed spatial structure. Cristiana Cott Negoescu, winner of the young talents funding award of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia 2023, focuses on ritualized actions under inhumane working conditions. Her performance addresses pressing societal issues related to global capitalism. Rubiane Maia connects the ecological challenges of our time – an issue that deeply concerned Beuys – with the historical trade routes of colonialism and slavery, whose impacts continue to shape the present. Francesco Marzano, who studied under Marina Abramović in the first cohort of the Pina Bausch Professorship at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, originally comes from a background in music. His performance explores the rhythm of individual and collective breathing.

Through this global dialogue between current performance practices and historical archival materials, a unique process emerges – one that enables a new, multi-perspective exchange on the oeuvre of Joseph Beuys. The exhibition bridges past, present, and future utopias, reexamines the performative potential of Beuys’ work, and challenges the boundaries between the museum, artists and audience.