Film Streaming
Social Sculpture
Celebrating Joseph Beuys' 100th Birthday
Lutz Mommartz, 1969, b/w, no words, 11:41 minutes
Social sculpture is an art-theoretical term used to describe art that aims to have a formative effect on society. Societies, actions and processes in which people creatively change conditions and shape them are also referred to in this way. On the basis of an extended concept of art, the German artist Joseph Beuys used these terms to explain his idea of a society-changing art. In explicit contrast to an understanding based on formal aesthetics, the concept of art propagated by Beuys includes those human actions that are aimed at structuring and shaping society. Thus, the concept of art is no longer limited to the materially tangible artifact.