Voices of the Object: The Meaning Arising from the Dialectic within Social Sculpture

One of humanity’s central concerns is understanding and evaluating the concept of experience through artistic expression, particularly in today’s rapidly evolving world. This study offers a structured interpretation of “experience” in Joseph Beuys’s ۷۰۰۰ Oaks, grounded in Theodor Adorno’s philosophy of negative dialectics, which critically examines social contradictions. This descriptive-analytical research employs a library-based method to contextualize Beuys’s work within the framework of social sculpture. The main objective is to explore how the dialectical emphasis on the object in Adorno’s thought can clarify the experiential dimensions of social sculpture and assess whether Beuys’s vision of an ideal society is achievable through this concept. The findings indicate that Beuys’s social sculpture—when interpreted through Adorno’s lens—functions as a critique of content via structured ambiguity, contradiction, and negation. This process generates an aesthetic experience capable of shaping social consciousness. Furthermore, the study concludes that for social sculpture to be effective, it must retain a dialectical relationship with the object. Such prioritization ensures that the artwork influences society without diminishing the value of the artistic form or space, thereby supporting Beuys’s notion that “everyone is an artist.”

کلیدواژه ها:

experience ، negative dialectics ، predominant object ، social sculpture ، Joseph Beuys ، Theodor Adorno