Guy Lochhead, 01/04/12
Austrian performance artist known for his gory, violent, sexualised “aktions” involving lots of young artists dressed in white, mutilated animals, blood, guts and religious overtones. The performances are meant to make suppressed areas of the unconscious mind visible in a “theatre of orgies and mysteries”. His work was a precursor to the Viennese Actionists, whom he later worked with. In 1971 he bought Schloss Prinzendorf, a castle in Northern Austria, to use as a base for his aktions. Nowadays he looks like a cult leader, with a long white beard and robes. I have mixed feelings about this guy. I enjoy the aktions because they are so much what they are. A lot of performance art doesn’t fully follow through with its intentions. Nitsch could not be accused of this. I also agree that we do have bizarre destructive and messy impulses, and that a lot of problems come from feeling shame about this, and trying to hide it. The authoritarian side of the performances can be defended as an act further satirising organised religion and the social structures that prevent us from expressing that side of ourselves. Labelling this as art gives it a lot of gravitas that it wouldn’t have if it was just a creepy guy getting young people to rub guts on their vaginas. I think this is good because art is stuck and stupid, and Nitsch is still in a vast minority of artists whole-heartedly engaging with this stuff. I originally thought that it was silly he’d been doing it for so long, but it’s actually more silly that there’s still a need, and that he’s so rare. The final thing I want to say is about the difference between him and the other Actionists. Otto Muehl is more of a wildcard, and he prided himself on erasing the divide between his life and his art. As a result, he was imprisoned. The important thing about Nitsch’s work is that it’s art. I mean, buying a castle and dressing like a cult leader extends the act somewhat, but he is essentially an artist, not just a deviant. His writing makes more sense to me than Muehl’s. It seems more intelligent and thought-through, and he’s got more of his bases covered than Muehl. I suppose he’s included but, since this is supposedly a thing for kids, I can only include his work in a very loose way. Perhaps just a picture of him? A picture of the castle?