Gerd Ludwig photographs …
… Beuys, recognizable by his hat, is standing on the dike. To the right and left of the dike crest, pasture fences cast long shadows. A tractor is approaching. On the left, a white cottage flashes in the evening sun of the Rhine lowlands.
(The photograph was taken on the other side of the Altrhein at the road connecting Griethausen with Schenkenschanz. Since today the old ferry connection from Düffelward to Schenkenschanz is missing, the photograph is at the boundary stone of the dike near the Grindweide).
Photo Link
Gerd Ludwig: Joseph Beuys on the dike near Düffelward, 1978
https://sammlung.mkk.art/werke/12917
https://www.gerdludwig.com/stories/joseph-beuys-journey-to-the-lower-rhine
Peter Sager writes:
Beuys himself sells his old hats to collectors. “People are tearing themselves apart over them, two have been stolen from me, some I have reworked into objects: the brim cut off or some fat applied. A hat like that, it lasts a long time, at least three years.” Then Beuys says, “I could easily buy twenty new hats for one old one”. He gets them from a hat maker in London. His fishing vest, which he now “reproduces” himself with his wife, goes back to a Canadian model; it, too, is a relic among Beuys fans. (ZEIT magazine 1978)
BEUYS MAKES
With felt hat, white shirt, fishing vest, jeans and boots Beuys creates a trademark with high impact: the artwork Beuys.
And today …
Dike and pasture fences in – at first glance – an old landscape which has hardly changed over the centuries. A second, closer look shows more.
Cycle route to the next station:
– on the dike until before Keeken
– left down from the dike in Vossegatt
– right Düffelgaustraße
– turns into Hofacker
– left into Hufscher Weg
– left into Dingdung
Station 4: In the Düffel
