Honey is flowing in all directions

Klaus Staeck (Herausgeber)

Kassel, documenta 1977. A pump driven by two strong motors forces honey over a 17 meter high pipe into a distribution network, which traverses the rooms of the Museum Fridericianum. This was the core of the "Free International University", which Joseph Beuys brought to life for one hundred days during documenta 6. In the surroundings of this "honey pump at its place of work", Beuys created a situation which emphasised his expanded notion of art, and what made it different from the traditional notion of art. "Place of work" meant talks, speeches, and discussions in work groups, and citizens' action committees from different countries. For one hundred days Beuys related his ideas about how art and society must of necessity change. Texts, diagrams, and scores documented the working process on numerous large-sized boards.

This piece of sculpture was first installed by Beuys in Kassel. On 28th June 1977 he invited us to join him in servicing and maintaining the "honey pump". Without a word being spoken, he led our cameras to every detail of his installation and thus explained its functions and mode of operation. Beuys financed the "honey pump" as well as all related events by private means, which caused considerable problems for him. Today, the "honey pump" is to be found, in pieces, in the Louisiana Museum in the Danish town Humlebaek. The boards are on show in the "Hall for New Arts" in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

The pictures, which are published for the first time in this volume, have lain in an archive box for twenty years. In early 1997 we have arranged them in this book.