Joseph Beuys - Manresa Hbf
While preparing my project “La Entrega, act I”, going back over the drawings and sketches of Joseph Beuys, I came across the action he carried out on Manresa, inspired by Saint Ignatius of Loyola1, who walked from Montserrat to Manresa. By relating his action to the mystic’s work, Beuys wanted to reflect an inner process of change and personal transformation.
Between 29 and 30 August 2018 I walked the same route as Ignatius of Loyola during the development of “La Entrega” on my way towards Farrera. The coincidence lies not only in the route, but also in the meaning that journey had within my own path, finding myself in a time of transformation and detachment.
The work of the German artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) is strongly connected with the city of Manresa. The action called Manresa Hauptbahnhof, promoted by Beuys himself together with the Danes Henning Christiansen, a musician, and Bjørn Nørgaard, a sculptor, both linked to the Fluxus movement, was presented at the Schmela gallery in Düsseldorf on 15 December 1966.
In 1994 Pilar Parcerisas held a solo exhibition on the action “Manresa Hbf” at Caixa Manresa and at the Centre d’Art Santa Mònica in Barcelona. In parallel, she organised a performance in Manresa with Henning Christiansen and Bjørn Nørgaard, the collaborators Joseph Beuys had had in the 1966 action. The exhibition was called Joseph Beuys. Manresahbf and the performance, also Manresahbf. When I asked Parcerisas whether Beuys had been in Manresa, she replied: «Some say yes, and some say no. Very hard to prove, although he did make a trip to Spain that year. When I organised the event, Christiansen, Nørgaard and Harald Szeemann, who presented the exhibition, said they were sure he had been there when they saw the Christ who sweated blood, which is in the cave inside a mystical mandorla. On the other hand, I have a fax from Kirkeby saying no, that he made it up… In any case, I’m a believer in the yes.»
Text by Pilar Parcerisas, “Manresa Hbf, una experiencia de Joseph Beuys en Cataluña” (1996) (pdf) - raco.cat | Manresa Hbf, una experiencia de Joseph Beuys en Cataluña
Score for MANRESA is a pencil and collage work on paper by the German artist Joseph Beuys that is related to his action event Manresa, staged by Beuys and two Danish artists at Galerie Schmela in Düsseldorf on 15 December 1966. Source: Tate
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In Barcelona, Ignatius of Loyola stayed at the Benedictine Monastery of Montserrat (25 March 1522), where he hung his soldier’s garments before the image of the Virgin and left it in rags and barefoot. In this way he reached Manresa, where he would remain for ten months, helped by a group of devout women, among whom he gained a reputation for holiness. During this period he lived in a cave where he meditated and fasted. From this experience were born the Spiritual Exercises, which would be published in 1548 and are the basis of Ignatian spirituality. In Manresa came the drastic change of his life: «to exchange the ideal of the solitary pilgrim for that of working for the good of souls, with companions willing to follow him on his way». He reached Rome and, shortly afterwards, on 4 September 1523, Jerusalem, from where he had to return to Barcelona. ⤶