Henning Christiansen, Bjorn Norgaard-MANRESA HAUPTBANHOF - An Homage to Joseph Beuys

A collection of materials and essays contextualizing a performance by Christiansen and Norgaard in homage to Joseph Beuys.

Joseph Beuys performed one of his most radical pieces, the action Manressa, on December 15, 1966, at the Galerie Schmela in Dusseldorf. He was accompanied by the Danish artists Henning Christiansen and Bjorn Norgaard, who, in 1994, created Manresa Hauptbahnhof (Manresa, Central Station), a new performance in homage to the original. The performance was carried out in Manresa, the city that both gave the name to the original action and was where Saint Ignatius Loyola had the revelations that led him to write his Spiritual Exercises, which Beuys considered essential reading.

This book brings together all the material related to the 1994 performance-including images, scripts, and preparatory drawings-as well as a selection of critical texts that situate the action within its European context. In one essay, Friedhelm Mennekes analyses the action by delving into its spiritual meaning, exploring the symbolism of the objects employed. In another, Pilar Parcerias uses the metaphor of the central station to discover the city of reference and redraw the map of Europe with unexpected connections between Manresa and Copenhagen. In the final essay, Peter van der Meijden contextualizes the two performances, which represented a meeting place for different artistic personalities working on the cutting edge in creating a new form of art.