Sonne Statt Reagan, 1982
, 1 min 58 s, colour, sound (music: Die Deserteure)

Courtesy of ARD TV / Bananas, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln

It has been said that for Joseph Beuys music swings between the extreme positions of silence and din, and perhaps because he believed that ‘every man is an artist’ – and what’s more shows it in front of large audiences – he also tried his luck as a pop singer, as part of his political commitment. In 1982, in a mixture of masquerade and activism, he infiltrated the Bananas programme on the German television channel ARD (07/03/1982), on which bands like Depeche Mode and Foreigner performed. Backed by the group Die Deserteure, he sang his song Sonne Statt Reagan, an attack on Ronald Reagan’s arms policies and a reaffirmation of his ecological commitment, on a programme with a wide audience broadcast to coincide with various demonstrations by pacifist movements in Germany. The song was eventually released as a single.

Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys

Dara Birnbaum

Dara Birnbaum

John Sanborn, Kit Fitzgerald (Antarctica)

John Sanborn, Kit Fitzgerald (Antarctica)

Pipilotti Rist

Pipilotti Rist

Bjørn Melhus

Bjørn Melhus

Charley Case

Charley Case

Olaf Breuning

Olaf Breuning

Cheryl Donegan

Cheryl Donegan

Ana Laura Aláez

Ana Laura Aláez

Marc Bijl

Marc Bijl

Carles Congost

Carles Congost

Joan Morey

Joan Morey

 Adel Abidin

Adel Abidin

Hugo Alonso

Hugo Alonso

Charles Atlas

Charles Atlas

Jesús Hernández

Jesús Hernández

César Pesquera

César Pesquera

Jorge Galindo and Santiago Sierra

Jorge Galindo and Santiago Sierra

The Conventions of Identity

The Conventions of Identity

The exhibition “Look At Me! Portraits and Other Fictions from the ”la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection” examined portraiture, one of the oldest artistic genres, through a significant number of works of our times. Paintings, photographs, sculptures and videos shaped a labyrinth of gazes that invite spectators to reflect themselves in the social mirror of portraits.

Is he sping on us?  <br>Vajiko Chachkhiani

Is he sping on us?
Vajiko Chachkhiani

Pera Museum, in collaboration with Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), is one of the main venues for this year’s 15th Istanbul Biennial from 16 September to 12 November 2017.

Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel

Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel

In 1998 Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu collaborated on an obvious remake of Marcel Duchamp’s Roue de Bicyclette, his first “readymade” object. Duchamp combined a bicycle wheel, a fork and a stool to create a machine which served no purpose, subverting accepted norms of art.