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Item: The Orwell Leg – Trousers for the 21st Century
Multiple
Materials: Multiple of denim Jeans with holes cut in the knees
Collection: Collection M HKA (Inv. no. BK009092).
Joseph Beuys participated in Nam June Paik’s renowned satellite ‘installation’ Good Morning Mr. Orwell on New Year’s Day of 1984. An international event, Beuys undertook an action live from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, with two pianos, two Turkish pianists and his The Orwell Leg –Trousers for the 21st Century. The trousers have a hole cut out of the front right-hand knee, and second hole cut out at the back of the left-hand knee. During the performance, he stated: “This is the Orwell leg, trousers of the 21st century. Everybody in the world should make these trousers themselves, to struggle against world-wide materialism and repression especially on the young”. The trousers were to become another edition of Beuys, of which M HKA has one as part of its collection.
