Jochen Gerz Public Authorship Foundation
„Creativity is indeed everybody’s gift. It is therefore not only the gift of a few; it is social (and not only artistic) by its very nature: this is the message. Public authorship aims at the transformation of everybody’s own gift of creativity into as many contributions to the commons of democracy.“ Jochen Gerz, Contemporaneities, 2017
Since the late 1960s, Jochen Gerz's art has revolved around the ideas of society, memory, and the role and responsibility of the public. For him, people are authors in everyday life. The Jochen Gerz Public Authorship Foundation is hosted since 2023 under the umbrella of the German non-profit association GLS-Treuhand e.V. as part of more than 165 endowment funds and foundations. In supporting charitable initiatives that open up creativity and authorship to the talents of all, the foundation is dedicated to the legacy of the artist's work.
News 2025
Public Authorship. What if Poetry Was Made by All? The book by Guido Meincke has been published in German by Büchner Verlag (Mars 2025)
How does society come into being? Who shapes it? And what role does creativity play in this? In his essay Public Authorship, Guido Meincke develops a radical thesis: every human being is an author of shared reality. Based on the work of conceptual artist Jochen Gerz, Meincke opens up the concept of authorship far beyond literature or art - towards a democratic understanding of creativity as social contribution.
The central idea: creativity is an ability shared by all. In this sense, public authorship does not mean writing texts, but consciously or unconsciously participating in shaping reality – with words, gestures, decisions, in private as well as in public. Those who live, create. Those who act leave their traces on the world. “Every statement of every person in every context is to be regarded as an individual contribution to a public sphere.” (p. 41) In the words of Lautréamont: Poetry is made by all.
Other Foundation activities
In 2025 so far the foundation contributes to the following initiatives:
SPREUWEIZEN Kids, Saxony, Bavaria, Brandenburg
“Fact or fake ? / Influencing / AI and democracy / Power and opinion… SPREUWEIZEN brings media, journalism and politics into classrooms in a practical and playful way: how news is created, what role AI and social media play in this?”
VILLAGE TALKS, Sömmerda
“We bring people together in one room who would otherwise only talk about each other… We talk about our values and about the things that divide us. We develop ideas for our common future.”
In 2024, in the first year of its existence, the foundation supported:
What if…? Philosophising with Children and Young People, Leipzig
Against the Authoritarian Turn, Berlin
Summer for Refugee Children and Young People, Berlin
# Welcome, Wilhelmshaven
Screwdriver’s Lab, Hamburg
Contact: Guidomeincke(a)publicauthorship.eu