He ties a cow with a rope







Awareness action - University Theatre - April 8th 1973

ernesto che guevara, the president of the cuban national bank, said in a statement to french journalist jean marcilly:

"of course it is very unfair, when a very intelligent person earns exactly the same as an intellectually stunted person. in truth, a very intelligent person ought to earn less, since either nature or god, it doesn't matter which we decide to call it, has granted him at the time of his birth with the lifelong investment of the creative spirit, with a treasure that was cannot be bought, unlike others who were at a disadvantage the moment they were born." ernesto che guevara placed highly gifted people, less gifted people and money, these three elements, into an unusual new structure.

what sort of structure had been known until then?

the first: when the highly able person gets more than the less able.

the second: when they saw the absurdity of the above and reordered life so that everyone, which is to say, the highly and the less gifted alike, received exactly the same.

ernesto chue guevaro's suggestion steps outside these forms and offers a new one. clearly, it is not simply a matter of his seeing the three basic elements, he arbitrarily inverted their usual order, but he recreated it according to an inner content, an original idea. For us to make a familiar structure into a new one, we must see our fundamental, true interest. The moment our true interests become understood, they form the demand almost spontaneously in which they can come into being, this particular new structure. ernesto che guevara submitted the quoted suggestion only within a system of relations, which was for the time being forced to take money into consideration. It is important to point out, that we ought not to hypothesise that this new structure which he suggests, is not now exchangable more radically for a new one. ernesto che guevara, the president of the cuban national bank, hated money, and if the structure of other elements of reality would have allowed him to, he would have withdrawn money from circulation. This is clearly the most widereaching alteration in the relationship between man and money.

The reason why I have said all this is because I must say thankyou to the available structure altering powers, which appropriated ernesto che guevara's splendid project, and adapted it to our own circumstances, and thus gave me the possibility to talk about a new classification in the structure of cultural politics, a cultural political structure which hitherto only gave a forum to those demonstrating the promise of a great talent or to those possessing a great talent.

Because an opportunity has opened up for me, to experience this new structure, I can hold an awareness lecture before a substantial public, therefore I imagine, my obligation, is to talk about the characteristics of this change

therefore the theme of my awareness lecture is the new classification of elements of reality.

the structure of elements at play in the quote from ernesto che guevara, the linguistic structure is not altered compared to the previous conditions. The elements have been changed over and a new relation of reality has originated, as an effect of the change of the internal given linguistic form. therefore it appears that language is the scheme of life. it's scheme, or coffin, which is action, the forming action opens and permeates. let's choose a test sentence.

He ties a cow with a rope. the elements of this test sentence, its structure, its meaning, with its infinite simplicity and naturalness, belong to our lives in the same way as the sentence "a person is endowed with great ability, therefore he should earn wonderfully". Starting from the idea of a new classification we do not make a change in the structure itself with exchanges and substitutions, but as soon as we bring it into connection with other elements of reality, it transpires that it is not about merely the inner relations of linguistic form but that a confusion has been excited in the area of a structure classified in a new way, it is confronted with it, and stimulated to change. It appears as a foreign element in its environment, in such a way as to create an effect as in an imaginary police notebook, where in the place of the surname, this sentence appears: he tied a cow with a rope. Undoubtedly it will open new perspectives on our lives, and thus we can boldly state that the old structure brings forth the emergence of the new structure, the emergence of a new phase of life.

if we observe that we are free and are capable of reorganising, reclassifying the elements of life, then we see immediately that basically we cannot do anything other when we live, which is to say, we have to break through unceasingly the given, existing schemes.

if we observe that we are free and are capable of reorganising, reclassifying the elements of life according to the contents of our interests, then we must use our freedom to demonstrate our very freedom.

he ties a cow with a rope!

examples for the reclassification of linguistic form: he ties the rope with a rope. He milks the cow with a rope. He takes the cow to the field with milk. He takes the shoe to the field with mustard gas. He washes its back with a pair of skis. he sniffs money with a gasmask. he sings the national anthem with sugar. he reads the report with joy. the hits the trousers with a stick. he ties the wreath with wire. he forgets sorrow with wine. he misunderstands the constitution with good intentions. he chases birds with a boat, and so on. by adhering to the structure of the sentence example cases of a new classification result in possible new realities, as well as things that cannot be realised.

if we dedicate ourselves to devoting our lives to our freedom, to the expenditure of changes, of the homo ludens programme, then starting from this kind of structure, we can edit for ourselves such information with the investigation of possibilities, which will find their way into the clashes with the coffin, the scheme, the restrictions of the neighbouring life, they will permeate it, and give us the possibility of continuing our lives within the framework of a wider life.

the following operation derives from a new classification of the "he ties a cow with a rope" sentence example, in a version, which is within itself and beyond itself, therefore bringing about a new relation in its environment, even though this space and time is also very restricted, in which it procedes.

long live new classifications! long live the structure of cultural politics, in which those with minimal abilities can plan their lives as freely as those endowed with great abilities. long live the cultural political structure which gives a mode to the introduction of new classifications. long live the forum of those with minimal abilities! long live the new classifications



There is a music stand in the foreground of the stage, on which a pigeon is sitting. Along the lengthwise axis of the stage a rope is stretched out on the ground. The peformer enters and reads aloud from the text placed on the music stand. The performer removes the music stand with the pigeon. The rope rises, attached to one end, on the righthand entry to the stage, a barking alsation dog appears, held by its owner. And on the left hand entry to the stage on the other end of the rope, is pulled a strengthened table, because behind the right hand entry the rope is tied around a pulley. The table is covered with a white tablecloth, in the middle of which something is bulging out. A cat is tied to the leg of the table. The dog, moves to the table and the cat, and thus pulls them towards himself. When the dog and the table reach the centre of the stage with the cat, the Performer enters and rips open the table cloth, where it is bulging. There on the table stands the pigeon.