Dimensions / 20.3×25.4cm (8x10inch)
Medium / B&W Photograph

Realigning themselves with the anti-institutional activities of Professor Joseph Beuys at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, students organized different actions for critical and open learning by, for example, convening classes for the public, which had nothing to do with the faculty and official curriculum of the school. Immediately responding to this atmosphere, LIDL Academy led by Jörg Immen¬dorff and Chris Reinecke also sought to experiment with alter¬na¬tive means of sharing knowl¬edge. Planting a LIDL flag on top of the school building, they transformed it into a temporary hostel to eat and sleep in, where students, teachers, researchers, and other interested participants assembled to talk about art education and institution. As shown in this photograph taken by Manfred Leve on 7 May 1969, the hand-written posters were not only a notice board about events, but a graffiti work expressing diverse opinions about the relationship between art and politics. The LIDL Academy was ended by the police and the entire Kunstakademie was temporarily shut down too.