Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee Nee Nee Nee Nee or It's Just a Missile

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"Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee Nee Nee Nee Nee..."

"Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee Nee Nee Nee Nee..."

"Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee Nee Nee Nee Nee..."

What the heck was that crazy, inane repetition of two syllables? Where was it coming from? I looked around the big, white museum space filled with objects I had a hard time classifying as art (two fans, titled "Two Fans"?). It wasn't coming from one of the video exhibits, because those had headsets for private listening pleasure. It wasn't coming from any of the "sculptures" (large pieces of foam rubber?). Finally, printed in tiny black letters on a lonely wall, I found the label. Profoundly, this piece of recorded performance art was titled, you guessed it: "Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee Nee Nee Nee Nee". My introduction to the wacky world of Joseph Beuys, an avant-garde artist who died in the mid-80s. Now I know how I am going to support myself when I move to Berlin! I will become a performance artist. Now, if only I can make people think I'm profound.... "Oh Oh Oh Oh, Ah Ah Ah Ah!"

OK, I realize (now) that Beuys is considered as one of the more influential modern artists of the twentieth-century, but you can't tell me he didn't have a sense of humor when he "composed" a piece consisting only of "Ja" and "Nee". As with many of the artists whose work is exhibited in the Hamburger Bahnhof, a former train station turned museum of contemporary art. I loved the "Berliner Zimmer" (Berlin Room), a room slashed through the middle; every object in the way - even a poor taxidermy cat! - was sliced where it lay. The remains of a dinner party adorned another wall. Old posters had stickers attaching saying "I am Fluxus". I left with a big smile on my face.

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The humor seemed to spill into the street that day, both in our own good moods (witness the photos in front of the English language school!) and the oddities we witnessed on our way to dinner at Zum Nussbaum.

A small example: we passed some guys carrying a foam missile down the street. As one does.

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[Pranjal]

Was it wurst food ever?
Jaa Nee - in village gujarati means please go!