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Joseph Beuys «Felt TV»
Joseph Beuys, «Felt TV» Shown in TV broadcast 'Identifications', 1970
Videostill | ©
The blood sausage, which was the prop lying next to the boxing-gloves under the chair at the beginning, is deployed in the second part of the action. First Beuys cuts in two, then presses it – as a 'symbol of energy' – against several points on the felt-covered TV screen, from which light music is emanating. For Beuys, 'cutting through, separating a closed, round form is a conscious procedure: one disconnects everything that conventionally runs through the media, and brings it into a zero situation, so to speak.' Finally, he sharpens to a point one end of the sausage and apparently rams it into the wall, a symbol of a Samurai sword.


 Joseph Beuys
«Felt TV: Shown in TV broadcast 'Identifications'»

As a contribution to Gerry Schum's 'Identifications', Beuys adapted for television the 'Felt TV' action previously staged for a live audience at a Happening festival in Copenhagen in 1966. It was the only Beuys action executed specifically for the camera. It opens with Beuys seated in front of a TV set showing a programme which is invisible because the screen is covered by felt. The boxing-gloves used later in the action lie at the ready beneath his chair.