Karaoke Beuys

1998, Für die bessere Welt, Lothringer 13 Halle, München (D)

Für die bessere Welt, Freie Klasse München

The students Wolfgang Groh, Hermann Hiller, Wilhelm Koch and Gottfried Weber-Jobe at Akademie der Bildenden Künste München (the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich) founded in 1987 the Freie Klasse München (Free class Munich), as a radical artistic critique of the art education. Ralf Homann is since 1991 a member of the group.

The first action of the movement was to take over the vestibule of the Academy and use it as a classroom and self-organized exhibition space. In 2007 celebrated the Freie Klasse München its 20th anniversary with the exhibition Freie Klasse denkt weiter (nach) in Galerie der Künstler des BBK, Munich.

In 1998 invited Freie Klasse München all Free Classes and other self-organized art-collectives to the first international Meeting of the Free Classes: The conference Für die bessere Welt (For a better World).

Karaoke Beuys – the beginning of finnfemfel

Karaoke Beuys was not only the first project by finnfemfel, but also the point of departure for our art-collective.

The project was based around a karaoke-video installation about the “Everyone is an artist” (Jeder Mensch ist ein Kunstler) – declaration by Joseph Beuys. By reading the karaoke-textlines up loud in the microphone any one could be a Joseph Beuys. The images in the videos consisted of everyday life, events and traditions from the from the coast-region of Ostrobotnia in Finland, e.g. ice skating on the sea, youths driving tractors around city in the night, celebration of Saint Lucy etc.

In addition to the karaoke-video installation the project included a automized sallad plantation (see newspaper-clipping bellow) and a small sized diaslide-show, showing the trasnportation of the sallad-plants from Finland to Munich.

Newspaper article about the exhibition and finnfemel (in German).