What Joseph Beuys Told Me…

“One is not born an artist, nor does one become an artist through one’s work – one can only die an artist”

(Boris Kadin)

Boris Kadin is convinced that Joseph Beuys is an artist beyond all categories. In order to be able to discuss Beuys credibly, Kadin assumes the role of a dead rabbit who, at the opening of his first solo exhibition (26. 11. 1965), lay in Beuys’s lap and listened to Joseph Beuys discuss Beuys’s work. “There are three basic categories of artists: those who deserve the subject they are dealing with, those who might deserve it and those who definitely do not deserve it. In my opinion, an artist deserves a subject only if he takes it upon himself unconditionally and proves it with his body. To prove this thesis today, I need a knife.” Boris Kadin

What Joseph Beuys Told Me,
While I Lay Dead in His Arms

2009 • Via Nova
Lecture performance • 40 min

Concept and text — Boris Kadin, Bojan Jablanovec
Direction and video — Bojan Jablanovec
Performance — Boris Kadin
Mask design — Sanela Milošević
Producer — Špela Trošt
Production — Via Negativa