Günter Brus, Silver, 1965
Otto Muehl, Mama and Papa, 1964
Hermann Nitsch, 3rd Action (Festival of Psychophysical Naturalism), 1963
Rudolf Schwarzkogler, 4th action, 1965
With its second exhibition, the WAM is going into greater depth. The inaugural exhibition WAS IST WIENER AKTIONISMUS? initially offered an overview of the multi-layered developments of this movement in the 1960s, in which the individual actions were only presented with exemplary photographs. Now, under the title VIER AKTIONEN (FOUR ACTIONS), an exhibition series is being launched that presents selected actions with all available historical material. In this way, it will be possible for the first time to follow the events of the actions in all their detail. The aim of the exhibition is to open up new perspectives on the reception of Viennese Actionism through the precise illumination of individual actions.
On display are all available photographs of four actions from the first half of the 1960s: Günter Brus, Silver, Otto Muehl, Mama and Papa, Hermann Nitsch, 3rd Action (Festival of Psychophysical Naturalism); Rudolf Schwarzkogler, 4th Action. The sequence of events and the individual scenes are also described verbally, making their complexity recognizable.
The role of photography will also be examined in more detail by showing photographs by different photographers and demonstrating, among other things, that the artists selected sections from the raw material of the images. The juxtaposition of the uncropped and cropped subjects and the use of the latter by the artists - for example in collages, but also as motifs on invitation cards - will provide an insight into their pictorial thinking.The moving images created during the actions will in turn show that the filmmakers - unlike the photographers - did not comply with Brus, Muehl, Nitsch and Schwarzkogler's desire for the most documentary reproduction possible of their actions.Last but not least, the respective preparatory works, sketches, scores and written considerations as well as the artists' subsequent reflections and, in some cases, publications will be on display, as will the press articles that appeared.
February 14 to July 27, 2025
https://wieneraktionismus.at
Günter Brus, silver, spring 1964, Atelier Muehl, Perinetgasse 1, 1200 Vienna, b/w photograph, photo: Ludwig Hoffenreich, with: Anna Brus
The Silver Action was the second action in which Günter Brus collaborated with his wife Anna. In it, he combined elements of his two previous actions Ana and Selbstbemalung and developed them further in a poetic and allusive way. The action is divided into several sections. Brus lined Muehl's basement studio in Perinetgasse with long lengths of paper and covered all visible elements of the space. In the central part, he wrapped his wife Anna in linen sheets and tied her up with white ropes like a parcel. He then poured flour over her and lifted the wrapped body onto a white table to tie it to two long pipes. Finally, he freed her from her shackles, undressed her, painted her and decorated her with the silver foil that gave her her name.
Otto Muehl, Material Action No. 11, mama und papa, August 4, 1964, Atelier Muehl, Perinetgasse 1, 1200 Vienna, b/w photograph, photo: Ludwig Hoffenreich, with: Ulla Holzbauer
What remained of the Mama and Papa action that Otto Muehl realized on 4 August 1964 in his basement studio in Vienna's Perinetgasse with Ulla Mattes (later Holzbauer) as his "model"? Seven handwritten texts written by the artist before and after the action, more than three hundred negatives made by two photographers, and an avant-garde film by Kurt Kren, the original footage of which has not survived in its entirety. Despite this extensive "archive", it remains impossible to reconstruct a complete picture of mom and dad.
Hermann Nitsch, 3rd Action, Festival of Psychophysical Naturalism June 28, 1963, Atelier Muehl and street in front of the studio, Perinetgasse 1, 1200 Vienna, b/w photograph, photo: Ludwig Hoffenreich
Hermann Nitsch realized his 3rd action as part of the Festival of Psychophysical Naturalism, an event by Otto Muehl and himself that was open to the public. In addition to the audience, the photographer Ludwig Hoffenreich and the journalist Georg Mikes, numerous onlookers were also present.
The festival began with Muehl smashing a mirror that had been placed on the street in front of the entrance to Muehl's cellar studio in Perinetgasse - a symbolic act of destroying and overcoming the panel painting.
For his subsequent 3rd action, Nitsch first lay down with a dead lamb in a bed covered in white. The carcass was then attached upside down to a meat hook near the bed. Nitsch worked ecstatically on the lamb and its head with a mason's mallet, burst its intestines, threw them around, rolled in them again and again, ate petals from a tea rose and had vinegar water poured over him. These processes were repeated continuously for 45 minutes and accompanied by a tape recording entitled Meditation (1961) by experimental musician and composer Anestis Logothetis. This was produced by direct contact between a microphone and various objects and corresponded with the rhythm and sounds of Nitsch's treatment of a lamb carcass.
Rudolf Schwarzkogler, 4th action, December 18, 1965, Heinz and Franziska Cibulka's apartment, Kaiserstrasse 16, 1070 Vienna, b/w photograph, photo: Franziska Cibulka, with: Heinz Cibulka
Schwarzkogler's 4th action, which is unsurpassed in its minimalism, is a table action, a type that Otto Muehl and Hermann Nitsch had already practiced before him.
had practiced before. The model's head, which protrudes from a table surface as if decapitated, and his body lying on the floor are subjected to various manipulations that suggest torture and injury, but also healing. The bandaging of the eyes in particular leads to de-individualization and also hints at the motif of blindness, which is linked to the Oedipal fear of castration. The entire staging bears similarities to the brutal electroshock treatments that Schwarzkogler's close friend Karl Heinz Schlögelhofer had to endure at the time. Due to the date December 18, 1965, which appears at the beginning of the recently discovered film by Brus, the date of the 4th action was revised and is therefore considered to be Schwarzkogler's penultimate action. It is also the only one of which a film exists. Schwarzkogler's partner Edith Adam, who took part in the 4th action under his direction, divided the 70 negatives of the action into 14 scenes and described them.
