An Attempt at the Total Work of Art
Three essays on Hermann Nitsch’s work, one of the most paradigmatic artists of the legendary Wiener Aktionismus.

Hermann Nitsch, one of the most paradigmatic artists of the legendary Wiener Aktionismus, author of performances and installations, paintings and drawings, through his artistic expressions creates a genuine 'total theatre' that unites myth and aesthetics, religious metaphors and everyday life, classicism and archaism, and even a barbaric element, all this in a monumental form that has no equals. In his project for the total work of art, the Orgien Mysterien Theater, Nitsch reveals the ethical and aesthetic reserves of meaning inherent in Wiener Aktionismus, a special form of performance art derived from the re-interpretation of myths and collective ritual praxis and forged by the artist-philosopher, which is manifested in the activity of the masses, who take part in the performance.

“My actions drill into vivid being, wanting there to be being where there is nothing. I seek the vivid existence that lies deep in tragedy, where destruction and creation pervade each other. I seek intensity, I seek life.” — Hermann Nitsch