Beuys Page #3

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The 7,000 trees in Kassel

each have a rock,

so it's a tree monument.

Every tree has a kind of opposite pole.

The tree keeps growing taller,

the rock stays as it is.

I wanted to juxtapose these two things.

So that over the course of time...

the proportions change constantly.

AN IDEA IS TAKING ROO SET YOUR ROCK ROLLING

JOSEPH BEUYS:
7,000 OAKS

I'd like to talk a little more about

another one of your influences,

your biography, your life.

If I understand correctly,

it's more than just

a personal affair for you.

What does your personal story

have to do with your art?

Is your an as autobiographical

as is sometimes claimed?

You're originally from Kleve.

You're the son of a civil servant

who went on to own

a fertilizer business, I believe.

So you weren't really predestined

to be an artist,

especially not with your

family background.

That's right, I wasn't.

My parents would've preferred me

to work in the margarine factory in Kleve.

Why did they want you

to work in the margarine factory?

Because it was the easiest way

to get a good job,

because it was on a par

with being a civil servant.

My parents wanted me to go there

because they thought,

"Whatever will become of him?"

But he did say he felt like a stranger

in his parents' house.

There was something missing there.

He felt no warmth there,

not even toward his mother.

Not really...

Theirs was a purely

pragmatic relationship...

That's how I imagine it, knowing him.

But what he felt deep down,

that was something else.

He said that his parents

rather neglected him,

that they left him to his own devices.

But instead of being sad about it,

he was proud of it.

It says a lot about him.

That's normally seen as a flaw,

but for him it was a source of strength,

being left alone, being free,

going off into the fields.

Hasn't your appearance

also become something of a cliche?

- Your famous hat, for example?

- Yes.

Does the hat

have a protective function,

or is it simply a trademark?

It also has a protective function.

So you protect your head with it.

Yes, I protect my head.

You were seriously wounded

several times during the war.

- And you once...

- Correct.

-...crashed with your plane, in '43.

- Yes.

And you said,

"It's been drafty up there ever since.

- Actually, I've got a screw loose."

- Correct.

I also said that I was shot into shape.

Do you remember the crash,

or did it happen so quickly that...?

I remember the plane going down.

I said, "Let's get out, let's jump."

- So there were other people in the plane?

- Yes, one other man.

- And he died?

- There was nothing left of him.

Apart from a few pieces of bone,

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