EDITORIAL
Are remembering and forgetting a pair of opposites or can forgetting also be a form of remembering? The dialectic of remembering and forgetting is not only the subject of our exhibition “Arbeit am Gedächtnis – Transforming Archives”, on show at Pariser Platz until 19 September, but it is also the theme of the varied assortment of articles in the current edition of Journal der Künste. The cultural scientist ALEIDA ASSMANN shows the many forms of forgetting there are and how they are manifested. She develops a theory of memory comprising spatial (storerooms/archives) and temporal (death/rebirth, sleeping/awakening, freezing/thawing) images, and, to combat forgetting, focuses on ways of ensuring preservation and reactivation. She assigns art the function of a monitor: “[I]t creates a mirror of self-reflection that enables a society to watch and think about its acts of remembering and forgetting.” MAX CZOLLEK ’s essay “Militant Art” is an appeal for an archive of the present and against forgetting. He calls for (art) archives to reflect more precisely the radical diversity in contemporary culture and thus to facilitate a more diverse view of history. His approach is thought- provoking, as it calls upon the archives to constantly reappraise their collection strategies and selection criteria. An archive alone, however, will scarcely be able to satisfy this demand for radical diversity. ULRIKE MÖHLENBECK recalls a special event in the Academy’s history: 11 July marked the 325th anniversary of the founding of the artists’ association, established in 1696 by Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg “not only for the practice, but also for the appreciation of art”. The anniversary is an occasion for the Akademie der Künste to look back but also to focus on the current situation. Calendar pages published online highlight landmarks in as well as snapshots of the Academy’s history, demonstrating that the Academy’s history has been by no means linear, but turbulent and varied. It is marked by the transformation of an educational institution into an international community of artists, by new departures and consolidation, by state intervention and the Academy’s will to manage its own affairs, as well as by controversies about art. “Nothingtoseeness” – is the term the composer John Cage coined in his quest for an equivalent to silence in the visual arts. In his 1952 piece 4’33”, the pianist sits at his instrument for four minutes and thirty-three seconds without touching the keys, enabling the audience to see and feel silence. At the same time, reduction, stillness, emptiness, and immateriality have been crucial devices in the visual arts for exploring new, extreme possibilities and conditions. White has played a prominent role both as a colour and material, as exemplified by Robert Rauschenberg’s White Paint
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ings of 1951 and Yves Klein’s intervention Le Vide (1961) at the museum Haus Lange in Krefeld. The exhibition “NOTHINGTOSEENESS ”, curated by ANKE HERVOL and WULF HERZOGENRATH , is dedicated to the semantic spectrum of the colour white, void, and silence. Following on from the sensational show “Weiss auf Weiss” (White on White), which invited artists from Europe and the USA to exchange ideas at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1961, the exhibition presents artistic and aesthetic practices from the 1950s to the present. A contemporary contribution is the installation We Buy White Albums by the US conceptual artist Rutherford Chang, which MAX DAX presents in this issue. After our COVID-related abstinence and virtual fatigue, we can now look forward to an “analogue experiential space” involving some fifty international artists, which can be seen at H anseatenweg from 15 September. The work of the European Alliance of Academies, which published its founding manifesto Open Continent on 9 October 2020, continues. The aim of this transnational alliance of seventy representatives of European art academies and cultural institutions is to network and demonstrate solidarity for the freedom of art and culture in opposition to nationalist and anti-democratic trends. One example of this joint commitment is a complaint to the UN Special Rapporteur on Culture, coupled with a demand for judicial remedies to the systematic restrictions on the autonomy of the arts and cultural institutions in Hungary. Last year, the takeover of the Budapest University of Theatre and Film Arts (SZFE ) by a foundation affiliated to the government sparked public protests. Dialogue with our partners in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania has also resulted in contributions to the current issue. “A Close Up” of Joseph Beuys is provided by the eponymous book of photographs by Michael Ruetz, commemorating the centenary of the artist’s birth and presented by ROSA VON DER SCHULEN BURG . The photographs were taken in the early 1970s, when Ruetz, armed with his camera but without a specific commission, accompanied Beuys at home, at the art academy, and during his performances. The pictures convey a distinctive impression of the artist – not so much a “picture of a saint” as an enlightening observation. It is Beuys’ body language and the presence with which he commands his surroundings that immediately strike the eye. Ruetz’s pictures derive their vitality from his special feeling for the right moment, for situations, and from his detailed observation of people. Werner Heegewaldt Director of the Archives of the Akademie der Künste
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