Joseph Beuys | Andreas Greiner

The “Face to Face and Side by Side” series juxtaposes works of art from different eras, formats, styles and content under a thematic heading. In fall 2021, Joseph Beuys’ (1921-1986) “7000 Oaks” (1982-1987) and Andreas Greiner’s (*1979) video work “Farewell (Harz)” (2020) will meet.

As part of documenta 7 (1982), Joseph Beuys initiated the planting of 7000 trees as an artistic and political-ecological action under the motto “Urban forestation instead of urban administration”. Around 40 years later, the themes of trees and forests seem more virulent than ever, but in the digital age, the signs and forms of expression are changing. In his video work, Andreas Greiner uses a deep learning algorithm fed with thousands of images of forests to recreate a digital forest. Artificial intelligence expands the human gaze and, through its specific aesthetics, enables a new reflection on the relationship between man, nature and technology, now and in the future. Together with Greiner’s sound work “Vom Walde” (2020), created in collaboration with Louis McGuire and also created algorithmically, which is based on Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s “Abschied vom Walde”, an atmosphere is created in the Kunsthalle’s lecture hall that tells of threat, beauty and change.

The exhibition series is produced in cooperation with the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1288 “Practices of Comparison. Ordering and Changing the World” at Bielefeld University.