Athens
A topic-related exhibition is to be conducted at the same time as the BUS’s stay in Athens. On the one hand, we could present Beuys’ multiples, and on the other hand, too, a choice of political posters. In any case, we want to display a selection of current political posters on the Athenian disturbances, which have still not quite died down, which show many analogies to German political posters from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
“The OMNIBUS FOR DIRECT DEMOCRACY – A Work of Art
If art, as we generally recognise today, is not created only to be hung over your sofa, nor merely to be carried to and fro in museums, and to be hung up and removed again, as we can also general see as accepted today, it is then only natural that a work of art itself might be rolling through the landscape on wheels. In other words, it doesn’t become a ‘non-work of art’ just because it isn’t hanging over your sofa or in a museum. Here, we have a work of art built on the principle of a motorcar, i.e. a ‘self-propelling vehicle’. In this age of great acceleration, the auto has become the means of locomotion for anyone. But what is special about this BUS is that it is a means of locomotion for everyone. A so-called means of public transport. Thus, when it drives through the countryside as a work of art, it becomes a public work of art.”
Felix Droese, artist, representative of the Federal Republic of Germany at the Biennial Festival in Venice 1988
Wednesday 30 Sept.
Biennal, Delta Faliro. mainvenue
"Everybody is an artist”
The concept of democracy and art in Joseph Beuys’ work
Dialogue with the visitors of the OMNIBUS
The OMNIBUS on its way through South-East-Europe
Film recording and interviews dealing with the journey of the OMNIBUS
Konstantinos Toubekis, dekaneafilm
Biennal, Delta Faliro. lecture hall, mainvenue
"Joseph Beuys – His fight for a free education system and direct democracy"
“Education and democracy, since they depend in their realization on the idea of freedom, cannot be something coerced by human beings. This would be a contradiction in terms, which must be over come through art.” Joseph Beuys
Karl-Heinz Tritschler, artist, OMNIBUS
Lecture and dialogue
Thursday 1 Oct.
Biennal, Delta Faliro. lecture hall, mainvenue
"Everybody is an artist”
The concept of democracy and art in Joseph Beuys’ work
Dialogue with the visitors of the OMNIBUS
The OMNIBUS on its way through South-East-Europe
Film recording and interviews dealing with the journey of the OMNIBUS
Konstantinos Toubekis, dekaneafilm
Report from the OMNIBUS (german only)
Werner Küppers, conductor of the OMNIBUS
... Ein paar hundert Meter vom OMNIBUS entfernt begann ein Yachthafen und gegenueber konnte man auf Piräus schauen, das Jahrhunderte sehr viel bedeutender und grösser war als Athen und nun längst gefressen und ueberwuchert ist (es ist hier die Rede davon, dass von 9 Millionen Griechen mindestens 4 Millionen in Athen leben) ...
Biennal, Delta Faliro. lecture hall, mainvenue
"Art extended - Joseph Beuys the Social Sculpture and the question of democracy"
“In its development art has reached a point where it has to ask itself about the organization of society. That is to say that art cannot limit itself to the common terrain any longer, but must understand itself as an organisation principle for society. As something that concerns every human being. Beuys has called the search after this form for the art “Social Sculpture”. A very important part of Social Sculpture is direct democracy. A different, a completely new economic order, which would mean self-governed companies, a new credit and price order and finally a state, which “shrinks” itself to a healthy size, to say it with a sentence of Joseph Beuys.” (Johannes Stüttgen)
Speaker: Johannes Stüttgen, master student of Joseph Beuys and close co-worker, co-founder of the OMNIBUS FOR DIRECT DEMOCRACY
Classical lecture with black board and chalk
Freitag, 2.10.2009
Meeting point is the entrance of the Dionysos Theatre /Acropolis
„The birth of Democracy“ Contemplation and reformation at the Dionysos Theatre, the Acropolis and the Pnyx.
Rhea Thönges-Stringaris
Archaeologist, Author and art critics, co-worker of Joseph Beuys, founder member of the Free International University (FIU-Kassel) invites us to a visit of her homeland.
(only in German Language)
Fine Art Academy, 256 Peiraios st, 182 33 Rentis, hall De Chirico
"Democracy in motion" - 12 countries, 8000 km, 1 goal
OMNIBUS FÜR DIREKTE DEMOKRATIE at hte Academy of Fine Arts
Colloquium - „The birth of Democracy out of art“
Host: Athens Fine Art Academy together with OMNIBUS gGmbH, Mehr Demokratie e.V. and Goethe-Institut Athens
Wolfger Pöhlmann, Michael von der Lohe – „In Gedanken an Beuys. Gedanken über Beuys“
W.P.: Goethe Institute, Manager of the Athens Programme, with regional responsibility for SE Europe
Mvdl.: Executive Director of OMNIBUS GmbH (limited company operating as a public utility)
(After every lecture there will be an open dissussion. Direction: Yannis Melanitis)
Report from the OMNIBUS (german only)
Werner Küppers, conductor of the OMNIBUS
... Bis vor kurzem gab es in Griechenland Wahlpflicht (wir haben da widersprüchliche Auskünfte bekommen: viele Griechen glaubten, daß es die Wahlpflicht immer noch gäbe); und die Griechen müssen zum Wählen in ihre Heimatorte fahren, so daß um die Wahlen herum eine rege Reisetätigkeit entsteht. Der Staat bezahlt sogar Flüge, damit Griechen, die im Ausland leben oder auf den vielen Inseln, zum Wählen nach Hause kommen können. Letzten Sonntag war die Wahl: der mit den vielen Plakaten hat erwartungsgemäß verloren und die „griechische SPD“ hat gewonnen und damit vor allem eine Menge häßlicher Probleme am Hals. Die Wahlbeteiligung lag trotz der vermeintlichen Wahlpflicht bei 70 %! ...
„FORUM for CITIZENS‘ DEMOCRACY“, EKEFE
Invitation to a neighboring locality of Athens, Agia Paraskevi. In November there will be a referendum.
Georg Kokkas Coordinator of DD Initiatives in Greece
More information: www.dimopolis.gr
Thursday 8 Oct.
Platia Klavthmonos, in the center of the city
“Every Person is an Artist” (Joseph Beuys)
Athens – the birthplace of democracy
Dialogue with the visitors to the BUS
The BUS travelling through south-eastern Europe
Film photos and interviews on the journey of the BUS
Konstantinos Toubekis, dekaneafilm
Hall of the Goethe Institute, Omirou 14-16, P.O.B. 30383
“The Athenian Dialogue”
The idea of democracy: Its origins and its current reality
Start of the series of conferences with annually changing topics on relevant questions of the confrontation between antiquity and the present.
The interdisciplinary colloquium is connected with the series “Democracy in Motion”, and the Athenian stop of the BUS FOR DIRECT DEMOCRACY project originally inspired by Joseph Beuys.
In cooperation with the Centre for European Constitutional Law: The Themistocles and Dimitris Tsatsos Foundation (www.cecl.gr), and the Swiss Embassy in Athens.
Presentation and moderation: Kostas Argyros, journalist
(in German and Greek with simultaneous translation)
Introduction: Dimitris Th. Tsatsos,
founder and honorary president, Centre for European Constitutional Law, Prof.em. for German and Foreign Constitutional Law at the Panteion University in Athens and the Distance-University of Hagen. Member of the Greek and the European Parliaments. PhD supervisor of Guido Westerwelle, Chair of the German Liberal Party (FDP).
Xenophon Kontiadis "Deficient Democracy: The Greek Example"
Constitutional lawyer, professor at the social science department of the University of the Peloponnese
Chair of the Executive Board and Academic Director of the Centre for European Constitutional Law, Themistocles and Dimitris Tsatsos Foundation
Bazon Brock “Problem Communities, not Cultural Communities"
Member of the FLUXUS movement and initiator of the visitor schools of the Documenta 4-6, Prof. em. for Aesthetics and Art Mediation, University of Wuppertal , action artist, philosopher, curator, maverick, culture theorist, aestheticist and diagnostician of the Zeitgeist.
Jens Reich – “East Germany, 1989 to 1990: Its happy final year of anarchic democracy”
Molecular biologist, East German civil rights activist, speaker at the great East Berlin demonstration on 4 Nov. 1989, co-author and initial signatory of the call, “New Departure ‘89, A New Forum”, representative in the only freely elected East German People’s Chamber, candidate for the office of President of the Federal Republic (1994), member of the German Ethics Council and member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences.
Friday 9 Oct.
Platia Klavthmonos, in the center of the city
“Every Person is an Artist” (Joseph Beuys)
Athens – the birthplace of democracy
Dialogue with the visitors to the BUS
The BUS travelling through south-eastern Europe
Film photos and interviews on the journey of the BUS
Konstantinos Toubekis, dekaneafilm
Hall of the Goethe Institute, Omirou 14-16, P.O.B. 30383
"The Athenian Discussion " (Part 2)
The idea of democracy: Its origins and its current reality
Johannes Stüttgen „Art Extended by Joseph Beuys and the birth of democracy out of art"
Artist, master student of Joseph Beuys, spin doctor & shareholder
in OMNIBUS
Christian Meier “Greek democracy. Its prerequisites and its peculiarity.”
Prof. em. for ancient history: University of Munich, 1980 – 1988;
Chair of the Association of Historians of Germany; Co-founder of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences; 1996 to 2002, president of the German Academy for Language and Literature in Darmstadt; Since 1994, associate member of the Athenian Academy. Research area: Classical Athens.
