Joseph Beuys Torn out of Time

Taking its lead from the »24-hour happening« at Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal in 1965, this exhibition of photographs by Ute Klophaus (1940–2010) focuses on her images of actions by Joseph Beuys. Her shots of moments »torn out of the flow of time« in Beuys’s performances also capture the special charisma, intensity and energy of beuys in action. This exhibition mainly draws on the wealth of Klophaus photographs in the collection of Lothar Schirmer in Munich.

The 24-hour happening, where other participants included artists such as Nam June Paik, Bazon Brock, Tomas Schmit and Wolf Vostell, was both one of the most important events in the international fluxus movement and a key experience for Klophaus who was born in Wuppertal. That encounter with Beuys crucially informed her subsequent development and she went on to photograph Beuys and his work for over twenty years. In the process, she developed the ability to give visible form to perceptions that go beyond the visual and to convey a sense of the hidden, elusive factors that also informed Beuys’s designs for the world.