Interested in learning more about German artist Joseph Beuys and why he was important? Then take advantage of the Goethe-Institut’s streaming platform! We are showing the 2017 documentary film Beuys directed by German artist and filmmaker Andres Veiel. This celebrated cinematic tribute incorporates a wealth of archival material, so that much of the narrative is in Beuys’s own voice.

About the film:  Few German cultural figures of the 20th century were as controversial as the action artist, sculptor, draftsman, art theorist and professor Joseph Beuys (1921 - 1986). His work dealt with a new, expanded concept of art that included the political co-creation of society. Andres Veiel's documentary film is an extensive search for clues; he unearths a wealth of barely known archive material and lets contemporary witnesses such as Klaus Staeck have their say. The result is a collage of visual and audio documents that gives all viewers access to the complex work of Beuys.

About the filmmaker: Andres Veiel was born in Stuttgart in 1959 and began studying psychology in what was then West Berlin in 1982. After graduation, he trained as a director and dramaturg at the international cultural center Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. Since 1988 he has been writing screenplays and making films, as well as penning plays and directing theatre productions. Today Veiel is an acclaimed director of documentaries and one of Germany’s most successful contemporary filmmakers.

Image © Zeroonefilm / bpk / Stiftung Schloss Moyland / Ute Klophaus