Vienna Actionism (2 results)

The original printed announcement for ?Zock-Fest?, held on the evening of 21 April 1967, four days after Zock Exercises had taken place at Galerie nächst St. Stephan. The Zock-Fest took place in the Grünes Tor, the clubrooms of the Catholic Austrian Students? Association of Vienna. Muehl and Nitsch, who participated on the side of the Actionists, were joined by many other representatives of the Vienna art scene, in particular literati such as Gerhard Rühm and Oswald Wiener, who belonged to the Vienna Group. The festival garnered around 500 visitors. The participants, mostly using pseudonyms, performed a series of revue-like numbers. Gerhard Rühm, alias ?Gustav Werewolf? opened the evening with the speech-act performance Gusch (Shut Up). Oswald Wiener alias ?Garth mit extra Fleischkraft? (Garth with extra meat power) delivered the Zock manifesto while throwing dumplings aimed at the audience. Then ?Omo Super & His Big Band? (Muehl and the Direct Art Group) performed ?Lieber Gott, wir sind alle epileptisch? (Dear God, we?re all epilieptic), in which they writhed through the audience before smashing kitchen furnishings to pieces in a Demolierungskonzert (Demolition Concert). When Nitsch alias ?Johannes 007? began to bludgeon a lamb cadaver, it comes as no surprise that the police were called and put a stop to the riotous evening. [Ref. Vienna Actionism. Art and Upheaval in 1960s? Vienna. Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, illus. 785, p. 324]. Single sheet, printed in yellow and brown on white paper. Vertical diagonal crease to sheet. …

The manifesto Die Blutorgel (The Blood Organ) was published in late May 1962 by Adolf Frohner, Otto Muehl and Hermann Nitsch together with the psychoanalyst Josef Dvorak. It remains the first printed document published by the Vienna Actionists. The broadsheet contains Nitsch?s explanation of the concept behind the Orgies Mysteries Theater, and Muehl?s text ?Der M.-Apparat?, a self-ironic consideration of his artistic approach. It also includes Frohner?s essay ?Der Schrei der Kunst?, and Dvorak?s text ?Blutorgelei als Daseinsgestaltung? (Blood Organing as Existential Design), written under the pseudonym Frtiz Graf. All these texts are preceded by the announcement of the forthcoming four-day ?Blutorgel? action which was to take place the following month at Muehl?s studio. On June 1 1962, the front entrance to Muehl?s basement studio on Perinetgasse in Vienna was bricked up and the windows were blacked; only a back entrance remained accessible. Screened off from the public and supplied with debris delivered to the basement, Adolf Frohner and Otto Muehl worked on sculptures. Meanwhile Nitsch created a nine-metre-long drip-and-pour painting. On the final day he acquired the carcass of a lamb, and for the first time Nitsch substituted blood for paint in one of his actions. Visitors on this final day could enter through the re-opened door to view the works. The Blutorgel broadsheet, presented here, is composed of two double-sided pages in an extreme horizontal format. They were originally distributed rolled up at the re-opening or ?unbricking? of the studio?s door on June 4. The manifesto?s graphic layout was determined by Adolf Frohner, although the print?s original design was embellished by the other artists: Nitsch doused it with paint, and Muehl wiped his paint-smeared hand on it, all of which is reproduced on the printed broadsheet. (Rare. WorldCat lists 2 copies at MoMA New York, and University of Chicago). [Ref. Vienna Actionism. Art and Upheaval in 1960s? Vienna. Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, pp. 43-49]. Two horizontal sheets each (24.5 x 60.3 cm), printed double-sided. Folded.…