In 1968, artist Jörg Immen¬dorff staged an action in which he tied to his leg a block of wood painted in the colors of the German national flag and bearing “LIDL,” and walked up and down outside the German parlia¬ment. LIDL is a word coined, like Dada, from the sound that the block of wood makes when dragged or without any specific meaning that is open to associations and speculations. In the winter of the same year, Immen¬dorff organized LIDL Academy, a neo-Dadaist action project in Karl¬sruhe and Dussel¬dorf, with his colleague Chris Reinecke, and set forth actions to advocate art, politics, and alternative education. While studying at the Staatliche Kunstakademie, Dusseldorf, they held the “LIDL Academy International Work Week” on May 5th to 10th, 1969, and convened a range of events under the support and influence of their teacher Joseph Beuys. The banner on the left-hand side of the photograph reads, “The academy must be available to those who have a real interest in working in it,” with Beuys wearing his typical felt hat in front of the banner. Already faced with criticism from other professors due to his foundation of the German Students Party and his activities to destabilize the existing system of teaching, Beuys put forward political activism as a work of art from then on.
