Joseph Beuys
«Speech made during live satellite telecast of opening of documenta 6»

'Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Children! You have just seen the Buddha (Beuys is referring to Nam Nam June Paik's video performance 'Buddha'). What would that friend of God and humankind, that human being in all his dignity, have to say about art? He would say art should release from itself something so massively hindered by present conditions that art suffers from this obstruction, that humankind suffers from this obstruction, that the entire future of humanity suffers from this obstruction. Would say art should liberate something that would represent a new form of art. Would say this something is the social sculpture, the art-work, art that no longer refers solely to the modern art world, to the artist, but comprehends a notion of art relating to everyone and to very question and problem of the social organism in which people live. Without doubt, such a notion of art would no longer refer exclusively to the specialists within the modern art world but extend to the whole work of humanity. - To refer to the whole work of humanity means to relate to all these fields which a freely made decision shall bring into a form by which they create, by virtue of human strength, a future structure which ought to be based on freedom. For what would art be without the notion of freedom. What would the notion of human creativity signify without the notion of human freedom. Thus, it can only be a matter of developing a notion of culture, a notion of spirituality, that is more comprehensive than the one existing at present. (...)' Joseph Beuys Together with Nam June Paik and Douglas Davis, Beuys organized the opening broadcast for the 'documenta 6' on 24 June 1977. In contrast to his fellow-artists, whose work was specifically media-related, Beuys limited himself to a live, 9-minute long speech delivered without notes into the TV camera.