EVENT LANGUAGE: GERMAN

EXCURSION TO PRINZENDORF CASTLE & NITSCH MUSEUM

About the artist:

Hermann Nitsch

Born in Vienna in 1938, lived and worked in Prinzendorf Castle, Lower Austria.

Hermann Nitsch is a decisive co-founder of Viennese Actionism. He is one of the most important contemporary artists and one of the most versatile: actionist, painter, composer (symphonies, organ concertos), playwright, stage designer. His Gesamtkunstwerk, the Orgien Mysterien Theater, encompasses the broad spectrum of his art by requiring the use of all five senses – the tragic leads to a confrontation with flesh, blood and viscera. The O.M. Theater is located in Prinzendorf in the Weinviertel. Works by Hermann Nitsch are exhibited in the two Nitsch Museums (in Mistelbach and Naples) and in the most renowned international museums and galleries. Hermann Nitsch died on April 18, 2022 in Mistelbach.

EXCURSION SCHEDULE

Departure Vienna: 1pm (bus parking lot at Kursalon Hübner, Johannesgasse 33, 1010 Vienna)

Arrival Nitsch Museum, Mistelbach: 2pm

NITSCH MUSEUM: Guided tour through the exhibition JORN – NITSCH
Protestant north vs. catholic-baroque Weinviertel

“Jorn – Nitsch” is the first exhibition at the nitsch museum Mistelbach in which Hermann Nitsch’s artistic work is juxtaposed with a second position. Alongside Karel Appel and Pierre Alechinsky, Asger Jorn (1914 Vejrum – Aarhus 1973, Denmark) is one of the best-known protagonists of the CoBrA group, one of the leading avant-garde movements of the post-war period in Europe, which advocated originality and freedom in art.

Jorn’s and Nitsch’s paintings are characterized by sensual power, physical commitment and materiality. With his action paintings and Schüttbilder from the early 1960s onwards, the Viennese actionist had decisively expanded the panel painting and defined it as a precursor to his Orgien Mysterien Theater. Above all, his late painterly work is filled with gestural discharges of impasto materiality and strong coloration. Jorn draws from the unconscious beyond the rational world and creates hybrid-organic form overgrowths that dissolve into an abstract painting substance.

A further parallel can be found in the use of drawing and the primacy of the line, whether Jorn’s archaic-childlike cephalopods and human-animal creations or Nitsch’s anatomically and organically influenced architectural notations in his graphic work.

Curated by Florian Steininger (Artistic Director of the Kunsthalle Krems).

Afterwards at 3 pm: Continue to Prinzendorf Atelier Hermann Nitsch

Arrival: 3:15 pm Atelier Nitsch, Prinzendorf

SCHOSS PRINZENDORF: Guided tour of the former studio of Hermann Nitsch

Prinzendorf Castle is a historic castle in the Weinviertel region, known for its central role in the work of the artist Hermann Nitsch. It originally belonged to Klosterneuburg Abbey and was part of an agricultural estate. For Nitsch, the castle became a place of artistic enlightenment, where he realized his “Orgien Mysterien Theater”. In 1971, he acquired the castle, which has since served as the venue for numerous performances and Whitsun festivals, including the famous 6-day play with hundreds of participants. Surrounded by vineyards and cellar alleys, the castle provides the ideal backdrop for Nitsch’s extensive artistic visions.

Return journey: 4:30 pm

Arrival Vienna: 5:30 Uhr

Number of participants: 20 people, first come first serve

Register via: office@nitsch-foundation.com