Der Stein will zurück zur Schleuder

The Stone Wants to Return to the Slingshot

La pierre veut retourner au lance-pierre

CR 59. Year 1978

Der Stein Will Zuruck Zur Schleuder Jochen Gerz Cr 59 009 Web
Der Stein Will Zuruck Zur Schleuder Jochen Gerz Cr 59 008 Web

    Reflecting on Gerz’ approach, one arrives at two sources: German Romanticism and Jean- Jaques Rousseau. His concern about the separation, about the lost entity, only to be regained as an utopia - appears to be romantic. … The Stone Wants to Return to the Slingshot: That which has been opposed by reflection strives to get back to its origin: nature. … Rousseau … never ceased mourning the cutting of the umbilical cord, but ultimately cut it by describing himself as the precedence of estrangement – an alienation he was in love with until his last word. … Knowledge – and this is the misery of all critical theory – comes at a price. Thus, despite all the meticulous anti-sentimentality and vicariousness, there is something solemn in Gerz’s propositions. They keep aloof from language and yet, they are a part of it. Wanting to pull oneself up by one’s own bootstrap is contagious precisely because success already lies within failure. Nobody who witnesses that will refrain from wanting to try the impossible.

    Günter Metken 1978. Translated by e_CR editors

    Denkt man Gerz' Verhalten durch, kommt man auf zwei Wurzeln: die deutsche Romantik und Jean-Jaques Rousseau. Romantisch scheint seine Besorgnis über das Getrenntsein, über die verlorene, nur utopisch herstellbare Einheit zu sein. … Der Stein will zurück zur Schleuder: Das durch Reflektion Gespaltene strebt zum Ausgangspunkt Natur zurück. … Rousseau… , der nicht aufhörte, das Abschneiden der Nabelschnur zu beklagen sie aber gerade dadurch definitiv kappte, daß er sich als Präzendenzfall der Entfremdung beschrieb, blieb (Ed.) in diese Alienation bis zum letzten Wort verliebt…. Erkenntnis, so die Trauer jeder kritischen Theorie, ist um diesen Preis. Daher das bei aller getüftelten Emotionsferne und Indirektheit fast Pathetische der Gerzschen Aussagen. Sie halten sich abseits von … der Sprache und bleiben doch Teil derselben. Sich am eigenen Haarschopf aus dem Sumpf ziehen wollen, wirkt deshalb so ansteckend, weil im Scheitern schon der Erfolg liegt. Niemand, der zusieht, wird das Unmögliche nicht auch selbst versuchen wollen.

    Günter Metken 1978.

    A reversal of the force of gravity in the double sense, for it may be the feature of the slingshot that it has a centrifugal effect, but the stone obeys the force of gravity and returns to the ground. The slingshot as physical force, the stone as the location of the mind with the force of will; probably that is why it has become so large that the slingshot could not possibly move it again. The irreconciliability of the two keeps the movement in the mind.

    Friedemann Malsch 1988

    Categories

    Installation

    Boulder, approx. 1.5 t, wooden slingshot, 4 x 22 x 44 cm, brass plaque, white wooden pedestal, 130 x 40 x 40 cm

    A boulder lies on the floor of the exhibition room. A slingshot and a brass plaque are mounted on a pedestal at a distance of about 16 m from the boulder.

    See manuscript of the same title (658)

    Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen

    Exhibitions

    Graz 1978. Frankfurt 1980. Stuttgart 1982. Athen 1982. Galilée 1983. Düsseldorf 1988 (Wien 1988. Jouy-en Josas 1989. Saint-Etienne 1989. Hamburg 1990). Düsseldorf 1991. Bremen 1991. Vancouver 1994 (Newport Beach 1995. Purchase 1996. Winnipeg 1996/97). Wiesbaden 1997. Long Island City 2015.

    Bibliography

    I: Graz 1978. Hannover 1978, p. 12. Luzern 1979, p. 86. Frankfurt 1980, pp. 5, 16, 22-23. Athen 1982. Stuttgart 1982, pp. 126-128. Lyon 1984, p. 71. Bielefeld 1985, p. 87. Meymac 1987, p. 65. Düsseldorf 1988, pp. 40-41. Davis 1992, p. 6. Vancouver 1994, p. 59. Paris 1994a, p. 149. Tel Aviv 1995, p. 43. Wiesbaden 1997, pp. 12, 112-118, 199. New York 2016, pp. 13, 64-65

    II: Kipphoff 1978, p. 47. Schmidt 1978. Titz 1978. Beaucamp 1980. Haase 1, 1980, p. 2. Nicol 1980, p. 7. Sello 1980, p. 29. Syring 2, 1981, pp. 48-49. Red. 1, 1988. Stecker 1988, pp. 300-301. Red. 1, 1989, p. 18. Bastian 1990. Pfütze 1990, p. 15. Preuss 1, 1990. Preuss 2, 1990. Red. 5, 1990. Red. 7, 1990. Koenneke 1991, p. 23. Campbell 1994, p. 27. Wagner 2, 1994. Red. 3, 1995. Wilson 2, 1995. Bonekämper 1997. Feeser 1997. Henke 1+2, 1997. Schossig 1997

    III: Haase 1981, p. 55. Baer-Bogenschütz 1997

    V: Salzmann 1991, p. 12

    VI: Art in Bulgaria 1995, p. 3

    Access general bibliography

    My name is Jochen Gerz