Joseph Beuys
Evervess II 1

In Evervess II 1, the concept of the edition is linked to an activity that is to be carried out by the owner. Two water bottles of the brand Evervess stand in a wooden crate with a sliding lid, one of the two bottles has gray felt labels on its neck and belly, while the other bears the manufacturer’s original label. Instructions on the lid of the wooden crate explain the function of the object: “Sender beginnt mit der Information, wenn II ausgetrunken und der Kronverschluss möglichst weit weggeworfen ist” (Transmitter begins with the information when II is finished and the crown cap is thrown as far away as possible). Beuys’ initial skepticism towards the principle of the readymade is reflected here in an activity to be carried out by the owner, which disturbs the integrity of the object and is at the same time part of the concept. When asked whether this request was meant seriously, Beuys replied: “Actually, it is meant seriously, but of course I knew that many people don’t do it. I think the object is only right when it is done, it hasn’t been in action before. […] And if people have done this action and regret it, then they have to go on and do another action and get another bottle like that, and I wouldn’t mind that!”¹ As Beuys explains further in the conversation, the finding of the Evervess water bottles is decisive for the object, “because the elements are consistently there” and the bottle as a “commercial object […] already entails a lot of communication through repetition”². Together with the added felt labels, “the element of matter, of covering, of darkness is present, but that there is a moving element in the bottle, the water, […] basically this is a bottle that still provokes the claim of a spring water, even if it is already a simple American soda water, but all these living things are also present on the label. It’s a real mountain landscape with snow etc. and there’s also blue and white and … […] if I hadn’t found this label, a bottle like this, with such a mountain, such mountain peaks, then I wouldn’t have made the object at all.”³ The wooden crate for storage, with the edition details and instructions for use printed on the lid, was created at René Block’s suggestion. The wooden crate can also be used as a presentation element, on which the two bottles can be displayed hanging on the wall. The edition Evervess II 1 was published for the 2nd Cologne Art Market in 1968 and was offered there at a price of DM 140.
Text: Birgit Eusterschulte

¹ Jörg Schellmann, Bernd Klüser, »Fragen a Joseph Beuys«, in: Jörg Schellmann (ed.), Joseph Beuys. Die Multiples. Werkverzeichnis der Auflagenobjekte und Druckgraphik, München, New York, 7th revised edition 1992, pp. 9-28, here p. 12. The proper name of the American brand Evervess is derived from the English word effervescence, which means the bubbling or foaming of something.

² Beuys, in: Schellmann/Klüser, p. 12 and p. 9.

³ Ibid, p. 12.