{"product_id":"kunst-diebstahl-als-totalkunst-demonstration","title":"kunst-diebstahl als totalkunst-demonstration","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSelf-proclaimed a \"total artist,\" Timm Ulrichs made mortality a recurring subject of his practice, producing gravestones, funerary monuments, and other works that confronted the rituals of death. One of these bears the inscription, \"Always remember to forget me.\" Yet Ulrichs is far from forgotten in our artists' books collection.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGathered by Dutch Fluxus collector Tjeerd Deelstra shortly after Ulrichs’ first “Total Art retrospective”, this scarce and provocative collection of documents and ephemera brings together manifestos, artist's texts and expenses lists. The collection culminates in the extremely rare publication accompanying Ulrichs' notorious \"art theft\" exhibition in 1971, a project documented by Dagmar Voss and broadcast on German television that embodied the artist's conviction that art theft was a logical extension of the readymade. Loosely translated as “Art Theft as a Total Art Demonstration”, this publication documents the theft of Gerhard Altenbourg's “Girl with a Star” (1949) from Galerie Brusberg, its subsequent display by Timm Ulrichs for three days at the Total Art Room Gallery in Hanover, and the artistic and legal repercussions that followed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eReinforcing its meditation on mortality, the publication also reproduces an image of a funerary urn inscribed: “TIMM ULRICHS ASCHE VERBRANNTER KUNSTWERKE 1969\/70\"(Ashes of Timm Ulrichs' Burnt Works of Art 1969\/70). The same year, John Baldessari similarly consigned all paintings in his possession dating from 1953–66 to a crematorium, transforming their destruction into the artwork in itself: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCremation Project\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (1970).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eUlrichs died in April 2026. In the end, his epitaph was destined to fail. Rather than being \"remembered to forget,\" he is remembered as one of Germany's leading conceptual and action artists.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54187852464467,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/Timm.png?v=1783083492","url":"https:\/\/metabooks.art\/products\/kunst-diebstahl-als-totalkunst-demonstration","provider":"Metabooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}