Hermann Nitsch

Exponent of the Wiener Aktionismus, the movement conceived with Günter Brus, Otto Mühl and Rudolf Schwarzkogler that since 1960 represents the maximum expressive tension of European Body Art. Since 1957 Nitsch has been developing his idea of Orgien Mysterien Theater: an experience of total art – gesamtkunstwerk linked to the psychoanalytic concept of abreaktion, or the emotional discharge that allows a subject to remove the effects of dramatic events. Allowing cathartic liberation from religious, moralistic, sexual taboos, Nitsch proposes the execution of rituals and ceremonies of ancestral heritage.