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Item: Eurasienstab
1968-1969
Sculpture, 410 x 180 x 130 cm.
Materials: wood, copper
Collection: Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf.
EURASIENSTAB. 82 min fluxorum organum was first performed in 1967, in Vienna. On February 9, 1968, Joseph Beuys' and musician Henning Christiansen's iconic action took place at Wide White Space gallery in Antwerp, where it was also recorded on 16mm film. Beuys performs a ritual for symbolically reuniting the four winds of Eurasia, seeking to reconcile Asian spirituality with European rationality. To bring these seemingly opposing energies in balance he uses the Eurasienstab, a long staff made of copper. The staff, used by the priest, the shepherd and the shaman alike, is a recurring motif in Beuys’ work, and occasionally with a walking stick as a surrogate.
