Vostell, Wolf: Car Accident (1965-67)

Wolf Vostell is a pioneer of German happening, Fluxus and video art, who created his works from the late 1950s onwards in the spirit of the so-called “decollage”. “Dé-coll/age”, in Vostell’s understanding, is a comprehensive artistic concept in which the artist radically interferes with the material or the environment by tearing, erasing, disrupting, destroying, etc. so that his art can become a socially critical, political force by breaking down conventional routines and obsolete values. In Car Accident, Vostell juxtaposes two scenes. The full-length photograph, enlarged on canvas, shows the scene of a road accident, with a wrecked car in the foreground and dead bodies inside. To the left is a police officer on duty, and in the background are onlookers holding umbrellas, the witnesses. The bloodiest part of the scene – the car wreck and the dead bodies – is overprinted with another photograph of uniformed American soldiers in balaclavas and boots lined up side by side, presumably during the Vietnam War. He adds bright, “pop” colours (pink, orange, red, blue) to the superimposed images, and at the top of the image, he cuts through the canvas to insert a long red fake hair into the gap, creating the impression of spilled blood. By combining images of everyday drama and war, by juxtaposing the symbols of consumer society with images of death and destruction, Vostell addresses the conscience of society in this work, pointing to the violence of contemporary history and the absurdity of human existence.

Krisztina Szipőcs