We live in a world we could not have imagined in 1978, when German artist and visionary Joseph Beuys helped create and ran for the newly founded Green Party (Die Grünen). His aim was to take a seat in European Parliament. He received only 600 votes. Eight years before Chernobyl, years before deforestation and pollution on our planet was commonly recognized as a global issue, Beuys was warning, urging and begging fellow humans to think and to stop. What would have happened if he was elected? With his stamina, his charismatic presence, could he have awakened people to the consequences of their unchecked consumerism? We can only guess now. 

Within this context, second year VCD students started a studio project supervised by Nina Kertselli and Tugcan Güler. The aim is to design a poster for Joseph Beuys’ 1978 election campaign. The students were encouraged to go beyond stylizing the designs in the fashion of late ‘70s — early ‘80s, but rather live it as an experience of “time traveling”: going back to 1978 and designing a really captivating poster for Beuys. 

Our students started by carrying out an extended research on Joseph Beuys. For many of them, it was their first deep encounter with conceptual art. Based on the results of their research they created a mood board with the images they found most striking. They were encouraged to incorporate in the mood boards their own work — drawings or photographs. They were also asked to document the process of researching and working on a mood board by taking a short video. For the final stage of the project, students created an election campaign poster for Joseph Beuys and Die Grünen.