Root to Crown: A Joseph Beuys Symposium

In 1974 the island of Ireland was captivated by the arrival of a German conceptual artist making waves across Europe for his radical approach to art, learning and community, Joseph Beuys.

Fifty years on from a series of lectures that were held across the island of Ireland, the ‘Root to Crown: A Joseph Beuys Symposium’ will look at how these lectures became embedded in the psyche of those who witnessed them and inspired artists to organise, create and disrupt.

Coinciding with the 175 years of The Belfast School of Art, Root to Crown will explore the initial impacts of Beuys visit at Crawford Art College, Co. Cork, The Ulster Museum Belfast and The Belfast School of Art. We will hear about how these lectures and approaches to practice influenced the creation of new organisations such as Art and Research Exchange a decade later.

Root to Crown also welcomes artists from across the island whose work touches on themes present in Beuys practice on landscape, ecology, pedagogy and time.

Root to Crown is a programmed event by Belfast International Festival of Performance Art committee member Thomas Wells as part of Beuys: 50 Years Later at the Ulster Museum.

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