ART DEMONSTRATION FOR CITIZENS’ RIGHTS

For our citizens’ rights – with a chainsaw!

On 4 May 2020, the day the museums in Berlin reopen after the shutdown, the artist goes outside. For 30 minutes, he relocates his workshop to the Platz der Republik, in front of the Reichstag Building. The Reichstag Building, a symbol of democratic history, is visited every year by millions of tourists from all over the world. By an artistic act of destruction of a four-meter-square work in gold leaf on wood, the artist demonstrates the fragile nature of democracies. The unusual gathering begins at 11:30 a.m. About 20 minutes later, he starts up the chainsaw.

First, he traces the lines gently with his saw. It is 5 minutes to 12. Then – brutally, horribly – the power tool bites into the citizens’ fundamental rights, violating them, eroding them from within. All according to plan. Muthesius strategically destroys the work of art. The chainsaw cuts right through the whole structure so that, finally, it collapses in on itself. Its remains lie on the ground. There is nothing left but fragments.

That is the plan. What we are reporting here is exactly what is happening.

Muthesius in front of his Golden Field