It was during his second journey to the United States, from 23 to 25 May 1974, that Joseph Beuys decided to carry out the action I Like America And America Likes Me at the René Block Gallery in New York. While the principle of this action appears to be extremely simple – cohabitating for three days with a coyote – its symbolic impact and the undertaking itself are far less so.

The coyote, a sacred animal for certain American Indian populations has the same status as vermin in the Western imaginary. Joseph Beuys affirms the necessity of reconciling with this animal, and through this action, he intended to represent the encounter between modern humanity and a kind of lost spirituality. By recalling the importance that the coyote has had in the past, he also invited the United States to confront the massacre of the native peoples of North America. Joseph Beuys, who had refused to set foot on American soil during the Vietnam War, seemed to be applying an approach to the United States that he had until then conducted in Germany: attempting to heal a people by causing them to face up to the darkest chapters of their history.

The only thing Beuys wanted to see of the United States was the coyote, even blindfolding himself in the airplane. At the airport, he was wrapped in felt and transported in an ambulance to the gallery. He left the premises in the same way. During the performance, Joseph Beuys episodically repeated a cycle: he puts on a pair of gloves, then rolls himself in felt, forming a kind of makeshift yurt, only allowing a cane to stick out, which he points either skywards or at the coyote. The artist lets the structure fall and remains for a while on the floor before dragging himself out of the felt. He then strikes a triangle a few times, followed by the broadcast of chaotic sounds on a tape player, lasting around twenty seconds. Finally, Joseph Beuys throws his gloves at the coyote, marking the accomplishment of a cycle that will have called on many recurring elements from the Beuysian imaginary: the use of felt as a protective material, the idea of materialising a connection between two opposing elements (through the use of the cane, which recalls the work Eurasian Siberian Symphony), an opposition of the formless (the audio recording) and the crystalline (the notes played on the triangle), a covert reference to Tartar shamanism, etc.

The coyote's reactions, oscillating between indifference, curiosity and aggressiveness, condition the artist's behaviour, and punctuate the action as it unfolds: it attacks the felt that protects the artist, urinates on copies of the Wall Street Journal that were brought into the gallery, or abandons the straw designed for it, preferring a space made by Joseph Beuys, consisting of a torch covered over with felt. A highly photogenic work was derived from this exchange, and the considerable documentation it gave rise to (whether it be in videos by Helmut Wietz or in photographs by Caroline Tisdall) resulted in some of the most emblematic images of the work of Joseph Beuys.

Philippe Bettinelli,
Translated by Anna Knight