The Green Tent (Das Grünes Zelt). Joseph Beuys and the extended concept of ecology

As the third chapter of an ideal trilogy, “Das Grünes Zelt” concludes the cycle of exhibitions with which the PAV has wanted to reconstruct a possible genealogy of the relationship between artistic practices and an ecological conscience in Europe during the 1970s.

Following on from Earthrise. Visioni pre-ecologiche nell’arte italiana (2015) and ecologEast. Arte e natura al di à del Muro (2016), this new exhibition aims to focus its attention on the activities of one of the more famous artists from the second half of the last century such as Joseph Beuys, concentrating on his relationship with political institutions and the menace posed by the environmental crisis.

The exhibition,”Das Grünes Zelt”, which coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of Beuys’ death (1986), was conceived as a sort of homage to the author of ‘social sculpture’.

Despite the extensive critical literature concerning the German artist’s activities, only rarely has this managed to transform the romantic and spiritual matrix of the word nature into the more political one of the expression ecology. This is true in spite of the fact that Beuys’ perspective was strongly aimed in this direction, so much so that he presided over the foundation of the German Green movement and for which, for a brief period, he stood as a parliamentary candidate.