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polity west germanyconcept:era contemporary

The Pack

Installation (1969) by Joseph Beuys. A Volkswagen microbus with its rear door open, from which 24 identical wooden sledges pour out. Each sledge carries a rolled felt blanket, a lump of fat, and a small flashlight — the minimal survival kit. A meditation on collective action, survival, and the relationship between Germanic engineering culture and primitive survival.

Scholarly Significance

Beuys's The Pack (Das Rudel, 1969) is one of his canonical sculpture/installations: a Volkswagen bus with the rear door open, 24 identical sledges pouring out, each equipped with survival materials.

Notes

  • ·Created in 1969, the year Beuys staged several of his most important performances and installations.
  • ·The VW bus (Volkswagen Type 2) is an icon of postwar West German economic recovery and social mobility.
  • ·The 24 sledges each carry the three materials central to Beuys's material vocabulary: felt (warmth, Tartar rescue myth), fat (energy, transformation), flashlight (directed thought, consciousness).
  • ·The 'pack' (Rudel) suggests animal collective behavior — a wolf pack deploying into the landscape for survival.
  • ·The work raises questions: are the sledges being loaded into the bus, or disgorged from it? Is this a departure or an arrival?
  • ·Beuys frequently used the number 24 (hours, days) as a temporal unit.
  • ·The work is permanently displayed at Kassel, the site of documenta — Beuys's most important platform.