79 pages book with many images and DVD in digipak sealed inside cardboard slipcase.
Documentation of Beuys performance 'Handaktion' with Anatol Herzfeld's 'Steel Table'.
"Three steel chairs are arranged around a steel table on which two arm clasps have been fastened in front of each seat. Moreover, for each seat, a small green and a red signal light have been installed.
Anatol's 'Stahltisch / Steel Table' (1969) was part of a staged performance entitled "Drama Stahltisch Handaktion (Eckenaktion)" / "Drama Steel Table Hand-Action (Corner-Action)" with Anatol Herzfeld, Joseph Beuys, and, as participants, Joachim Duckwitz, Ulrich Meister, and Johannes Stüttgen. It took place on January 23, 1969, at the Düsseldorf pub "Cream Cheese." From a control desk in the corner of the pub, Anatol sent red and green signals to the participants who had their hands fixed on the table: They had to speak as soon as the green light came on; a red light meant they had to be silent. (...)
In its entirety, the Action took about one and a half hours - its agonizing, indeed Kafkaesque character also expressed in its duration. It was accompanied by Beuys' "Handaktion" / "Hand-Action," his free acting in a corner of the room, entirely detached from the coercion at the table, a demonstration of freedom of action and communication that commented on the proceedings. It seemed to offer a way out of the situation resulting from the enforced activity at the table."