The exhibition and the accompanying catalogue offer profound insight into the cosmopolitan thinking of Joseph Beuys, as manifested in his actions, which are presented in the form of video projections and photographs. For it is in this capacity as an acting, speaking, and moving figure that Beuys examined the central, radical idea of his expanded concept of art: "Every human being is an artist." The goal of his universalist approach was to renew society from the ground up. To this day, his influence can be felt in artistic and political discourses. In this exhibition, contemporary artists and representatives from various areas of society enter into a multilayered, transcultural dialogue with Beuys. From today's perspective, they confirm, question, and expand upon his theses about the possibilities of a future conceived via art. With B-Town Warriors, Phyllida Barlow, Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian, Fatou Bensouda, Huma Bhabha, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Angela Davis, Bob Dylan, Charles Foster, Núria Güell, Thich Nhat Hanh, Donna Haraway, Raphael Moussa Hillebrand, Jenny Holzer, Michel Houellebecq, Dusadee Huntrakul, Suzanne Lacy, Zoe Leonard, Goshka Macuga, Milk Tea Alliance, Lutz Mommartz, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Otolith Group, William Pope.L, Tejal Shah, Vandana Shiva, Santiago Sierra, Patti Smith, Edward Snowden, Christopher D. Stone, Greta Thunberg, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Malala Yousafzai. Exhibition: K20, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany (27.03. - 15.08.2021)

Greeting / Armin Laschet -- Preface and acknowledgments / Susanne Gaensheimer -- Everyone is an artist / Eugen Blume -- Cosmopolitical exercises with Joseph Beuys / Isabelle Malz and Catherine Nichols -- Exercise 1. Joseph Beuys-- -What is a human being? / Eugen Blume -- Joseph Beuys ; Thich Nhat Hanh ; Suzanne Lacy -- Exercise 2. Appeal for alternatives / Isabelle Malz -- Joseph Beuys ; Malala Yousafzai ; Raphael Moussa Hillebrand ; Zoe Leonard ; Phyllida Barlow ; Goshka Macuga ; Milk Tea Alliance ; Fatou Bensouda ; Christopher D. Stone ; Jenny Holzer ; Angela Davis ; Michel Houellebecq -- Exercise 3. Barking and crawling as practices of revelation / Florentine Muhry -- Joseph Beuys ; Pope.L ; Bob Dylan -- Everyone... Plasticity and flexibility for a consciousness of the brain / Catherine Malabou ; Everyone is an art form / Helen Hester ; Making music with the knee / Wolfgang Müller ; Joseph's voice / María Cecilia Barbetta -- Exercise 4. Do monsters think? / Eugen Blume -- Joseph Beuys ; Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian -- Exercise 5. "Within the wanderer there is always a new person"-- -On nomadism / Catherine Nichols -- Joseph Beuys ; Tuan Andrew Nguyen -- Exercise 6. From gangster to gangsta-- -The direction of creativity / Catherine Nichols -- Joseph Beuys ; Núria Güell ; Santiago Sierra ; Edward Snowden ; B-Town Warriors -- Exercise 7. Moral machines-- -and What is capital? / Eugen Blume -- Joseph Beuys ; The Otolith Group -- ...Is... Humans and behavior / Maja Göpel ; A homage to Zoe Leonard's I want a president, 1992 / Marina Naprushkina ; 7,000 oak wood apartments / Van Bo Le-Mentzel ; The hive mind and Soziale Plastik / Ou Ning -- Exercise 8. Can gardening save the world?-- -On human agency, social plasticities, and future societies / Isabelle Malz -- Joseph Beuys ; Dineo Seshee Bopape ; Vandana Shiva ; Mierle Laderman Ukeles -- Exercise 9. Shamans / Eugen Blume -- Joseph Beuys ; Greta Thunberg -- Exercise 10. "Because I'm a hare"-- -A political party for animals / Catherine Nichols -- Joseph Beuys ; Charles Foster ; Donna Haraway ; Dusadee Huntrakul -- Exercise 11. We have the power-- -Everyone is an artist / Eugen Blume -- Joseph Beuys ; Patti Smith -- Exercise 12. "How does one become a revolutionary? That is the problem"-- -Evolution as "becoming-with" / Catherine Nichols -- Joseph Beuys ; Huma Bhabha ; Tejal Shah -- Works/ Positions / with texts by Angela Wenzel