virtual museum of modernism nrw

Wolfgang Feelisch
in'sait, 1969
Object
Wooden board with imprinted paper cover
H. 20 cm x W. 13 cm x D. 2 cm

To the world of art the Remscheid manufacturer Wofgang Feelisch is known less as an artist, but rather through his reputation as a collector of Fluxus, as curator, and, above all, as founder of the VICE-Versand (VICE mail-order house) and thus as publisher and editor of Multiples.

The term "Multiple" – it also applies to Feelisch's own work in'sait (1969) – designates an original that is no unique work but has been produced as a series in an edition with a number specified by the artist. A pioneer for Multiples is the Edition MAT (Multiplication d'Art Transformable), founded in 1958/59 by artists Daniel Spoerri and Karl Gerstner. It was Spoerri's intention to subvert the idea of a work of art as an original and unique achievement, a concept he considered obsolete. Instead, he wanted to make it possible for everybody to buy art at affordable prices. In the context of the Fluxus-movement this idea experiences a boom in the late 1960s and more and more art publishing houses that specialized on Multiples are founded. This is also the case with Feelisch's VICE-Versand which in 1968/69 starts to sell affordable Multiples, initially in an unlimited edition. Feelisch uses new ways of distribution for his objects, he sells them in supermarkets, in department stores, and offers them via mail-order.

Feelisch's own object, in'sait, may at first glance be considered a book. On the bright red paper cover there is the title, onomatopoetically appropriating the English word "insight". Yet one might also associate the title with "inside" and thus with an ambiguous hint at an alleged 'interior' of the book. The "title 'In'Sait', printed on white in red and black is", according to Feelisch, "what one called Un-German in the 1930s. Something alien." Instead of gaining further insight by reading the book the reader finds only a block of wood the size of a book, "without any instructions as to the reception (…). If it turned out that the wood comes from the tree of knowledge we would not have a book but something like a holy relic – and the entire Christian credo of the occident would have to be rewritten." (Feelisch)
In an ironical way Feelisch points to the paradox characterizing many books as well as works of art: the contradiction between inside and outside, between essence and appearance.

Connected to the Museum am Ostwall since 1968, Feelisch exhibited the first editions of the VICE-Versand already in 1969/70, as permanent loan of the Feelisch collection to the museum. They are currently still being shown as part of the permanent exhibition. In 1988 the museum is able to acquire a part of the collection, yet the presentation in the museum does not at all imply the end of the productions of the VICE-Versand. In the Dortmunder Museumsbrief 2/1970 Feelisch explains his permanent loan with his wish to be "unburdened" in his activities "from the conservation of documents some of which have by now already become historical" (Kat. 1993).

With the so-called "Feelisch Collection" the Museum am Ostwall was thus able to acquire Multiples of the VICE-Versand as well as related documents. It was also able to obtain larger works of several Fluxus artists that were not part of editions. Through the contacts of renowned art collector Feelisch and the receptiveness of Eugen Thiemann – at the time director of the museum – further projects emerged for the museum, for example: large exhibitions of Milan Knížak, Thomas Bayrle, Joseph Beuys, and Allan Kaprow.

R.P.