The Beggar's Diary, 05.08.2007. - It's Sunday and the streets of Muenster are quiet. Filch is crossing a bridge when he spots the name Johann Nepomuk. So his dear friend (http://beta.thebeggarsopera.org/node/101) has a statue on a bridge named after him… He daydreams about how the people of Muenster will remember Charles Filch. He would be happy with a building, a bridge, a statue, a street, a hill or a park. Just imagine: "Charles Filchstraße".
Yes, Filch is obsessed with his own mortality. His existence has now run half its course (a month and a half to go, more of less!), and as he looks back on what he has done he is not sure he’s satisfied. Time is running out. He has changed his opinion too often to be proud of himself. We could call this period his adolescence: at first he did not want to be on the official map of SP07, then he was happy to be on the map, then he was furious he was taken off the map without being asked (and, as if that were not enough, the organizers wanted him to be "everywhere in the city", which was clearly impossible), then he was put back on the map and he was bored with being on it, and now he just does not know, like so many people in their forties.
He has not fulfilled his dreams. He is going through a midlife crisis.
He wants to sell his belongings and start all over. To give his “stand” a distinguished look, he puts out labels for stuff that has apparently already been sold (it’s a cheap lie, he agrees, but why shouldn't it work?). For instance: a laptop for 0,10 euro, to let people know here was an opportunity they missed, and they must hurry not to miss the ones still available.
He also tries to sell the streetlamp next to him for 15 Euro, but somebody points out to him that you cannot take it with you if you buy it. Filch then suggests an "Erbpacht" (long time lease), meaning that you can consider it yours for a number of years. "Now, you must know that the number of years is psychologically very important", he explains to everyone who wants to hear it. "If you say 15 years (=1 euro per year), a buyer will know that one day he will not own it anymore. But the buyer who takes out a 90 year lease will feel it will be always his. Because he will die still owning the lamppost!" Filch thinks that 15 Euro for 90 years is a very cheap price—basically, it comes down to 16 cents per year. Cunningly, he first writes 25 Euro, then puts it immediately for sale and reminds the customers of his mathematical wisdom.
He meets a family whose two children are art students. Both find his stand very amusing. For the first time, Filch asks people what they think of him (a clear sign of his midlife crisis).
The boy tells Filch about Joseph Beuys (him again!! it is an omen!!) and the difference in the German language between SKULPTUR and PLASTIK (KUNST). By his lights, Filch is SOZIALE PLASTIK.
* Die Soziale Plastik beziehungsweise soziale Skulptur ist eine spezifische Definition eines erweiterten Kunstbegriffs des deutschen Künstlers Joseph Beuys. Er nutze die Begriffe um damit seine Vorstellung einer gesellschaftsverändernden Kunst zu erläutern. Im ausdrücklichen Gegensatz zu einem formalästhetisch begründeten Verständnis schließt das von Beuys propagierte Kunstkonzept dasjenige menschliche Handeln mit ein, das auf einer Strukturierung und Formung der Gesellschaft ausgerichtet ist. Damit wird der Kunstbegriff nicht mehr nur auf das materiell fassbare Artefakt beschränkt.
Das traditionelle Kunstverständnis, in dem der Künstler als Schöpfer von Kunstwerken gilt, wird auf menschliche Tätigkeiten ausgedehnt: jeder einzelne gestaltet die Gesellschaft, Kultur, Politik und Ökologie mit und formt sie plastisch in einem kunsthandwerklichen Sinne.
Whatever that means.
Filch meets a woman who tells him about her Palestinian taxi driver, who drives her around Muenster so she can see the sculptures, and who doesn't know anything about art, but whom she took to see Bruce Nauman's sculpture anyway. She did not mention what effect the sculpture had on him.
She was impressed by Isa Genzken's work and she thinks everybody should see this “symbol” of "child abuse".
This is not the first time Filch has heard this interpretation of the work. What’s Constanze’s opinion on the matter?
"And what about me?" Filch asks.
"I have to get used to the idea of you", she says.
Yesterday, Alina asked about all the things that are happening and which are not mentioned on The Beggar's website.
Filch answered, without thinking: "There is a lot of silence".
He must elaborate on that.
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