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| Me contemplating the seals at Gropius, between an Andy Warhol (ceiling), and a Dan Flavin (floor). Photo by Jennifer Danos |
There is a video recording of me walking through Joseph Beuys' The End of The Twentieth Century (1983-1985) in Hamburger Bahnhof. I have stood between these basalt stones quite a lot while giving tours at the museum. I loved how Dan Flavin's green neon-lights on the wall illuminated this archaic work. I think Beuys would have appreciated the humour. Beuys' stamps (or are they "wounds"?) in these volcanic rocks are wrapped in the warm material of felt and clay. In the Hamburger Bahnhof version of the work, there are 21 stones, as if referring to the upcoming 21st century. I always thought of it as a positive, hopeful work.
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| General Idea, Fin de Siècle, 1990. Photo: Akane Kimbara |
A few years later, in 1990, the Canadian collective General Idea created the installation Fin de Siècle. It is exhibited now in all its glory at Gropius Bau. General Idea's End of the Century is not heavy like Beuys', but light, made of hundreds of sheets of Styrofoam insulation standing in for Arctic ice, with three baby seals, made also from plastic. But the installation is not less monumental. It fills the whole atrium of the museum. You can't walk it but only look at it from afar, squinting the eyes to see these cute seals in the middle. A bit later in the show, in between an Andy Warhol on the ceiling, and a Dan Flavin lookalike on the floor, the equally fake seals can be looked at from up close. Here, there is no felt and clay material to symbolise healing, but the view does, despite its fakeness, evoke a tender, protective impulse.
To my knowledge, nothing followed at the beginning of the 21st century. The Beginning of the 21st Century hasn't materialised, at least not as an art work. As in film, "The End" is worth announcing, but beginnings stay unmentioned. Maybe, if it's not too late yet (in 2023), I can do a Call for Proposals. Maybe it is easier to imagine, if I call it The Beginning of The End? Anyone can give me a general idea.