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assassination and political murder

Ignominiously assassinate a Head of State

Ben Vautier: PROJECTS for events (1962)


Ed Paschke: Purple Ritual, 1968
Jean Tinguely: Untitled Project, 1970

"On 12 November 1970 De Gaulle’s funeral service was held in Notre Dame in Paris, in the presence of one hundred heads of state. ‘What a work of art it would have been to blow the lot of them sky-high. Perhaps a generation missed a chance there that could have given it its real start’, Tinguely commented. "

"If one thinks of the creation of a work of art as an act to which an individual devotes his utmost energies, in which he expresses his opinion as plainly and as drastically as possible, in which he attempts to achieve the greatest possible social and general significance, and for which he assumes total responsibility, then that description is one that could equally well refer to a political murder attempt. The work of art and the attempted murder probably have one other thing in common too: that at the crucial moment both the artist and the assassin are governed by the belief that no other choice is open to them."

Hultén 1975, pp. 338/35


Joseph Beuys & Thomas Peiter, 1972
("Dürer, ich führe persönlich Baader + Meinhof durch die Dokumenta V.")


Gerhard Richter: Jugendbildnis, 1988

   


Gerhard Richter: Gegenüberstellung 2/3, 1988


Gerhard Richter: Zelle, 1988




References

Klaus Biesenbach (ed.): Regarding Terror: The RAF-Exhibition. 2 Volumes. Berlin: Steidl Verlag, 2005.

Hans-Peter Feldmann: Die Toten. 1967-1993. (Studentenbewegung, APO, Baader-Meihof, Bewegung 2. Juni, Revolutionäre Zellen, RAF.) Düsseldorf: Feldmann Verlag, 1998.

K.G. Pontus Hultén: Jean Tinguely. ‘Méta’. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975.

Robert Storr: Gerhard Richter. October 18, 1977. New York, NY: The Museum of Modern Art, 2000.

Ben Vautier: Moi Ben Je Signe, 1963. [English translation by David Mayor: Me Ben I Sign. Surrey (UK): Beau Geste Press, 1975.]


RS, 2005