On Friendship/(Collateral Damage) IV

How to Explain Hare Hunting to a Dead German Artist
[The usefulness of continuous measurement of the distance between Nostalgia and Melancholia]
(September 2021 - February 2023)
A critical project concerning post-war artist Joseph Beuys
Created by Joseph Sassoon Semah, curator Linda Bouws
© Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten
 

MAARTEN LUTHER KERK, Dintelstraat 134, Amsterdam
15 May 2022, 15.30 hrs, Exhibition, Performance and Meeting
15 May - 15 July Exhibition 

Meeting
May 15, 2022: The Christ impulse with Joseph Beuys - a critical reflection
Stage discussion Dr. AH. Wöhle, President Evangelical Lutheran Synod in the Protestant Church and Joseph Sassoon Semah 

Which image of Christ did Beuys have in mind?
How does his image of Christ relate to his art?
What influence did Steiner have on his work?
How does Joseph Sassoon Semah reflect on Joseph Beuys in his artworks?
How does Dr Andres Wöhle view Beuys, Steiner and Joseph Sassoon Semah as a theologian? 

Christian iconography is one of the most important themes in the work of artist Joseph Beuys, especially the Christ impulse. He uses objects that represent spiritual search, modern devotion: the crucifix, a walking stick, a bird, a hare. Suffering gives rise to the capacity for creative power 'art is a spiritual act that has to be done over and over again'.
Beuys was strongly influenced by the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner, 'Christ-ich Kraft'. For Steiner, the physical incarnation of Jesus at the beginning of the era was a one-time event. Steiner calls this the 'Christ impulse' and 'the mystery of Calvary'. 

Performance: Joseph Sassoon Semah with friends
.....a Land Flowing with Milk and Honey Maarten Luther Kerk Amsterdam, 15-5-2022


Performance Joseph Sassoon Semah and his friends in Maarten Luther Kerk in installation
'...............a land flowing with milk and honey' 2022 

Meeting: Andreas Wöhle and Joseph Sassoon Semah
Joseph Beuys and the Christ Impulse

Exhibition
Two new Installations were placed in the Maarten Luther Kerk.

'Milk and Honey' together represent completeness and harmony. And yet, in relation to themselves, the symbols of milk and honey are a representation of a certain misunderstanding;
And since a misunderstanding is always a conflict - we can say that the symbolic appearance of milk and honey is always identical to those evoked already by the Guest.
But when conflict intervenes, it is the Guest who is the first individual that is being displaced;
At least until the next Reading comes - so that it appears to cause the gesture of Writing - to search as it were, the absence inside our longing for the temptation of redemption;
And in this, each activity made in the public sphere is a gesture of Reading while Writing - the power of an irresistible creative process, and all it stands for ethically and politically.
To which the lies of the 10 SPIES became the outbreak of our future memory - the sacred re-telling of a 'brutal' dark time, of existence which is still outside the light of life.


... a land flowing with Milk and Honey 2022
5 bronze casting of Bee Skep, closed copper water supply circuit, two bronze water pumps, water from Jerusalem, electricity wires (104 meters), foot switch 40 cm height
Courtesy of Maarten Luther Kerk, Amsterdam 

Please note: the form of the closed water supply circuit is based on the ground plane of the second Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, the placing of the water pumps corresponds with JaChIN and BOAZ i.e. the two pillars which stood on the porch of the Temple. The water supply has been mixed with water from Jerusalem - pressing the foot switch one can hear the sound of water running through the copper tube closed circuit.


... a land flowing with Milk and Honey 2022
10 metal farm milk container jugs, a metal frame based on Solomon's Temple (a silhouette of TeFILIN), 8 hard-boiled eggs, 230 x 230 x 30 cm
Courtesy of Maarten Luther Kerk, Amsterdam

Metropool International Art Projects
Contact: Linda Bouws
lindabouws@gmail.com
Mob +31(0) 620132195