Joseph Beuys died 40 years ago, on January 23, 1986.
Nam June Paik died 20 years ago, on January 29, 2006.

We are taking these anniversaries as an opportunity to commemorate the concert In Memoriam George Maciunas in July 1978 that both artists dedicated to their friend George Maciunas (1931–1978).
The concert for two pianos was performed in the auditorium of the State Art Academy in Düsseldorf in memory of the artist and founder of the Fluxus movement.
“We set up two pianos,” Beuys describes the piano duet, ”he [Paik] does his thing, I do my thing, we haven’t agreed on what we do. In terms of sound. We meet at this particular point, neither of us knows what the other is doing; the only thing we know and have agreed on is the time.” (Joseph Beuys) After exactly 74 minutes, the concert ends with an alarm clock ringing. George Maciunas died at the age of 47.
Edition Block published, among other things, a recording of the piano duet as a double LP and an enlarged invitation card to the concert as a silkscreen print on canvas.

Sixty years are hard to put into words. Sixty works are easier.
Since 1966, Edition Block has stood for a practice in which editions were never mere reproductions, but rather autonomous artistic creations. What emerges here is not a “second-rate” work of art, but a different one, at times more defiant.
The early years coincide with a moment when the very notion of the artwork begins to shift. Fluxus, Conceptual Art, and politically motivated works seek forms that can be disseminated, that circulate, provoke, and have an impact beyond the art world. In this context, the edition becomes the ideal medium, not as a compromise, but as a strategy to make art accessible to a wider audience.
This approach continues to shape the work and commitment of Edition Block to this day. The edition is not a closed chapter, but an active player. Accordingly, the anniversary exhibition brings together alongside now-historic works by Joseph Beuys, KP Brehmer, K.H. Hödicke, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Wolf Vostell (among others), also recent productions by Ayşe Erkmen, Mona Hatoum, Ceal Floyer, Alicja Kwade, Rosa Barba, Mariana Vassileva, and Mehtap Baydu (among others).
Over the decades, a wide range of formal and material expressions has emerged: prints, objects, artist’s books, records, and everything in between.
Sixty works, then, less a gesture of celebration than a state of work. After all, the question of what constitutes a work of art, how it circulates, and whom it reaches remains unresolved.
Fortunately.

The idea of a serial arrangement is also found in KIF – Kunst im Fenster. In 1981, Eva-Maria Schön created Pinselstriche hintereinander (Brushstrokes in sequence), a work composed of a sequence of individual, self-contained strokes. At KIF, the work is now being shown again in a modified version under the title 60 Meter, Pinselstriche (60 Meters, Brushstrokes). The 60 meters take up the motifs of duration and distance, a concept that can also, incidentally, be read as a reference to the 60 years of the Edition Block. What is visible is never everything at once. Only through movement, reversal, and superimposition do new constellations continually emerge, a painting that unfolds in space.

“Brushstrokes are loners. Placed one after another, each stroke reveals its color, its shape, its movement, its beginning, and its end. I place the next stroke on the long strip, 30 meters on the front, 30 meters on the back. Each stroke is unique and stands on its own. No image emerges; no painting is created by layering strokes on top of one another. What remains is a community of individuals. It is impossible to see both sides of the long strip at the same time. Part of the brushstrokes always remains invisible. When I turn the strip so that the front strokes meet the back ones side by side, by chance, a new variation emerges. The accumulation of brushstrokes then forms an image that can be a painting, an expanded painting in space.”
Eva-Maria Schön