Hermann Nitsch

Nitsch

A short film by Maria Lassnig, shot in 1970.

Becoming Otto

A portrait of the Austrian avant-garde artist Otto Mühl/Muehl (1925-2013), whose work combined sex, violence, gastronomy and bodily effluence with unbridled abandon.

Christoph Schlingensief - Die Piloten

Documentary satire about a project by Christoph Schlingensief: Ten years after his TV project "Talk 2000", Schlingensief started to work on a new talk show – at least that was what he claimed. But in reality, it was obvious that the pilot episodes he produced would never be broadcasted. Nevertheless, all celebrities from the political and cultural sphere, Schlingensief had requested, accepted his invitation, including the filmmaker Oskar Roehler, the televangelist Jürgen Fliege, the politician Claudia Roth, or the rapper Sido. It is beyond question, that the talk show panel took an unconventional course directly from the start – and was soon threatening to turn into an uproar.

365 Day Project

This exhibition focuses on Jonas Mekas’ 365 Day Project, a succession of films and videos in calendar form. Every day as of January 1st, 2007 and for an entire year, as indicated in the title, a large public (the artist's friends, as well as unknowns) were invited to view a diary of short films of various lengths (from one to twenty minutes) on the Internet. A movie was posted each day, adding to the previously posted pieces, resulting altogether in nearly thirty-eight hours of moving images.

The Action Art of Hermann Nitsch from Past to Present

Retrospective on Hermann Nitsch. A 4-Hour overview of his Actions from 1962-2003, as well as an interview from 2005.

Scenes from the Life of Hermann Nitsch

A casual, personal portrait of Hermann Nitsch, made with footage I took over the many years of our friendship. Footage includes early performances in New York, images of Hermann shortly after the acquisition of the Prinzendorf monastery, which since has become his main space of activity. You also see Hermann with his Vienna, New York, and Napoli friends, Peter Kubelka, Raimund Abraham, Gunther Brus, George Maciunas, Giuseppe Morra, and others.

Trieste

Based on slides shot in 1978 of the Austrian aktion artist Hermann Nitsch. Put away for 24 years, the color transparencies are spread out on a light table. The images are examined with a macro lens and captured with digital video. Not so much a reconstruction, or documentary of an event but a process of re-imagining. A hundred frames record a 12-hour, noon to midnight performance in an Roman amphitheatre in the center of Trieste in Northern Italy. Hermann Nitsch has been creating his unique rituals since the early 1970’s. The blood flows over naked bodies strapped on crosses, carried blindfolded, senses are tweaked with percussion sounds and blaring brass instruments. Religious iconography, operatic orchestrations of cast, crew, friends, and the public who eat, dance, drink.

Frauenmuskel

"Frauenmuskel is a jarring and sexually explicit film. Yet, the film holds an important dual sense of mystery that haunts long and after the film is over. Filmed during the Hermann Nitsch action of 1998, the film covers a stroll through the countryside as well as nightly impressions of the stars and clouds above Hermann Nitsch, himself" -Christopher May

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

Birth of a Nation

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas films 160 underground film people over four decades.

Alexander Scriabin – Towards the Light / Calculation and Ecstasy

Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915) born in Moscow, was an innovative, mystical, avant-garde Russian pianist and composer. This film explores Scriabin’s profound vision of art's unity — where music, movement, light and colour merge to create transcendent experiences. Some claim Scriabin pioneered atonality before Schoenberg. Key works: Poème, Op. 32 No. 1 (1903) and Vers la flamme, Op. 72 (1914). Featuring expert commentary from esteemed musicians like Vladimir Ashkenazy and Vladimir Horowitz, Artist: Hermann Nitsch, conductor Mikhail Pletnev and insights from Scriabin’s daughter: Marina Scriabine, this documentary offers a unique glimpse into the life and works of one of music’s most enigmatic figures. Shot across stunning locales in Switzerland, Italy and Moscow, enriched with Scriabin’s own writings and rare archival materials. The highlight includes a historic recording of Scriabin himself, playing his Poem Op. 32 No. 1 on a Welte Mignon player-piano, recorded in 1908.

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life

A film collage tracing the story of the lives, loves, and deaths within the artistic community surrounding Jonas Mekas.

Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht

Biopic of tragic Schlager singer Drafi Deutscher.

Paradise Not Yet Lost

The film is arranged in six chronologically-ordered parts, each filmed in a different location during Oona's third year.

Documentazione Della Settimana Internazionale Della Performance

“Before the eyes of all, at least of those present, the naked and direct exhibitions of the body take place with all its extensions; but the naked eye of the spectators who circle is promptly doubled by the many mechanical or electronic eyes of the photographic equipment and of the 'cameras' which, with their clicks and their tenacious buzzing, form the background” Renato Barilli