“Healing the Earth” in the Wake of Joseph Beuys

Dr. Uranchimeg Tsultemin

Among the increasing number of recent exhibitions dedicated to the topic of environmental issues is the exhibition titled Healing the Earth: 50 Yeas of German-Mongolian Friendship, opened last month at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. While the topic is not new, the structure is unique as it is a major show featuring nine established Mongolian artists placed in direct conversation with nine German artists, who include Joseph Beuys (1921–86).

The exhibition is organized and curated by the art historian Gregor Jansen, the Director of the Kunsthalle. Jansen collaborated with Mongolia’s cultural envoy, Ms. Oyuntuya Oyunjargal, whose background is in arts administration, as well as with the Chingis Khan Museum in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, which will host future German exhibitions. The exhibition’s main programming includes German artists’ trips to Mongolia, and Beuys’ solo exhibition featuring his early drawings, planned to be shown in the Chingis Khan museum in spring 2025.

The exhibition takes the concept of healing beyond the context of postwar Europe, during which Beuys’ idea of artist-as- healer/shaman was born, and connects it directly with the current era of political turmoil and the Anthropocene, as these issues “should not be conceived of as separate systems that have chronically failed to understand each other since the start of the modern era.”1 The exhibition revolves around the critical question of nature/culture divide through explorations of urban and nomadic modes of living and a stark contrast in human attitudes toward nature as seen through a dichotomy of West vs. non-West.

Throughout the three galleries, the German and Mongolian artists’ works are set up in a juxtaposition and dialogue of human relationship to nature triggered by the concept of “Social Sculpture” that Josef Beuys initiated in the late 1960s in his performances, teachings and lectures. It is well-known that this concept later led to his famous project of planting trees at Documenta in 1982 thus pioneering a socially engaged, team-based approach to art in general, aiming, in Jansen’s words, to “strive to transform and shape themselves and society – as a means and an opportunity to heal humanity, society and nature.”2 While it is not specifically mentioned, the exhibition’s focus on Beuys’ interest in “Eurasia,” explored with organic materials–such as felt, wool, wax, and more – is strongly conveyed throughout. The exhibition is deliberately structured to begin with Beuys’ objects and papers on healing and to end with installations by a contemporary art collective “Slavs and Tatars”, whose works and activities articulate provocations of intersectionality within the socio-cultural “area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia.”3 “Eurasia” for these artists is not only a geography, but it is a broader artistic concept that these artists tackle from different lenses and interests: linguistic and material, including “Mother Tongues and Father Throats” by Slavs and Tatars, culturally-specific materials and metaphors, “Big Mom (Venus)” by Unen Enkh, “Crows” by Gerelkhuu), the analysis of modern-day fraught politics as “we are in this together” to borrow Rosi Braidotti’s term, “Strange Love E.H.” by Carmen Schaich and “Tij (sun)” by Melike Kara), through epistemological interrogations into civilizations. These interrogations include “108 Questions to a Nomadic Woman with a Gun” by Thomas Stricker and through a dichotomy of spirituality and Western science Baatarzorig’s “Eternal Sky,” and “Dig of No Body (Organ*isation)” by Mariechen Danz). Other works include Otgonba-yar’s Finding Myself (2022), and Gan-Erdene’s “Way Home” (2022). Munkhtsetseg’s “Incubator” (2017) is among others which address broader issues of human-nature relations.

The idea of “Social Sculpture” and evolving forms of socially engaged participatory art are critically debated topics among contemporary artists and curatorial practices today, especially after the global pandemic.4 The last Documenta in 2022 was entirely based on art collectives, political activism, and socially engaged, team-based art, whereas the upcoming 15th Gwangju Biennale in September 2024 will focus on mutual relationality, mediation, and participation. Jansen’s exhibition is successful in showcasing the impact and legacy of Beuys in the works by the German artists represented in the show, the majority of whom, with only one exception, have some direct ties with Dusseldorf, the city of Beuys and of Fluxus. The exhibition is built with an intended audience of Dusseldorf.

Since Beuys was not alone in Dusseldorf in his fascination with “Tatars”, Eurasia, shamans, and healing,5 the exhibition unfortunately limits these ideas to Beuys alone, and such limitation does not help the viewers to grasp and explore the complexity and the depth of how these notions developed in postwar Germany, what they meant then and how they can and should be relevant to modern-day problems of humanity.

Indeed, the exhibition argues for the critical relevance of Beuys’ “Social Sculpture” to the hot debates of the environmental crises today and in contemporary art in particular. The era of the catastrophe and destruction of the environment, the natural world that we face globally, a key issue, and in this exhibition, Mongolia and its culture is best placed to address this important emergency, with or without Beuys.

There is no doubt or questioning of Beuys’ central positioning and critical importance in modern and contemporary art. Strangely unclear, however, is how did Beuys impact the Mongolian artists and those shown in the exhibition? How and in what way does an understanding of Beuys contribute to any understanding of Mongolian art, here placed in its conversation with German artists? While a deeper understanding of Mongolian art is not among the goals of the exhibition, it appears here to only corroborate Beuys’ ideas of creativity and interdependent living with nature. Such linear vision counteracts Jansen’s otherwise positive ambition to give visibility to these understudied Mongolian artists. By placing lesser-known art of Mongolia in direct dialogue with German artists, the exhibition triggers a probing into another acute problem of today, which is a rapidly growing call for, and effort to decolonize arts and humanities. Precisely because these nineteen artists in Healing the Earth are addressing issues of global concern, an introduction to the dynamics of Mongolian art is certainly missing as it would have been important for a German viewer to better understand Mongolian artists and their connection to Beuys, which is limited.6 This is particularly true as Beuys is known only to a handful of people in Mongolia. Those Mongolian artists who matured with a direct understanding and impact of Beuys in Mongolia are not featured in this exhibition and the instances of Mongolian limited, yet important engagement with Beuys—such as Beuys Club in 1995 in Ulaanbaatar—are not even mentioned. Peripheral to the central mission of the exhibition, which is to commemorate the two countries’ half-centenary of diplomatic relations, the exhibition is breathing with Beuys’ ideas, and it is certainly a unique homage to a German-Mongolian connection, or a German interest in Mongolia––which Beuys was among the first artists to explore in art in the past century.

German-Mongolian exhibition at Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf, Germany (June 29- September 8, 2024)