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112
Joseph Beuys, Initiation Gauloise, 1976

Chapter: Map of Utopia - History, Cartography, Worlds Design

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The Artist as shaman
Joseph Beuys used shamanism and magic as central metaphorical and performative tools to radically expand the concept of art and to heal society after World War II. He understood the artist as a shaman, a mediator between different worlds who employs magical rituals and materials to release hidden, vital energies.

With felt and coyotes
An example of this practice is his famous performance I Like America and America Likes Me. In 1974, he landed in New York, where assistants wrapped him in felt and transported him by ambulance to the René Block Gallery in SoHo. There, Beuys spent three consecutive days, eight hours each day, wrapped in felt and holding a shepherd’s staff beside a live coyote in the gallery space. For Beuys, the coyote, persecuted by settlers, embodied the spirit of America. He believed that America had to confront the coyote to overcome its trauma: the murder of Indigenous peoples, the destruction of nature, and the Vietnam War.

Gallic rituals
Two years later, for his edition Initiation Gauloise, he overlaid a map of the Paris Métro with symbols referring to ancient Gallic initiation rituals, thereby linking contemporary urban structure with archaic forms of knowledge and transformation. By inscribing these signs into a system of orientation, Beuys connects everyday movement through the city with deeper mythological and spiritual transitions. As in many of his multiples, the reduced visual gestures carry strong conceptual meaning and refer to central themes in his work: ritual, activation, and the transition from one state of consciousness to another.

Audio

Note: The audio transcription is voiced by an AI.

Joseph Beuys, Initiation Gauloise, 1976
Color litograph on ardboard, stamped
© 2026 - Nachlass Joseph Beuys, Düsseldorf
Sammlung Deutsche Bank

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