Hermann Nitsch Austria, 1938-2022

born 1938 in Vienna · died 2022 in Mistelbach

"My talent for drawing enabled me to study at the Graphic Teaching and Experimental Institute in Vienna. There I received a good basic artistic education. I developed from studying nature to abstract painting. I was also interested in poetry, theatre and classical music. I was fascinated by the Gesamtkunst approaches of Greek tragedy, Claudio Monteverdi, Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, Alexander Scriabin, Wassily Kandisky and Arnold Schoenberg. Philosophy, comparative religion and psychoanalysis, the mysticism of all religions interested me. I had intimate experiences with nature. After completing my studies in 1958, I became a graphic artist at the Technical Museum Vienna. There I moved into a large studio and was able to work a lot on the scores of the orgy-mystery theatre. I tried to write a 6-day original drama combining and bringing together ancient tragedies, Shakespeare, Faust, Kleist and Wagner. Informed by Freud and Jung, I wanted to incorporate redemption myths interpreted in depth psychology into my work.The actors were supposed to speak their roles. The language was full of sensual images. The book "the word poetry of o.m. theatre" illustrates this developmental phase of my work. Why should my audience be impressed only by the verbally quoted memories of sensual sensations. I ask my audience to directly experience sensually. There were instructions to taste, smell, see, hear and touch. Meat, willow and fruit were given to the audience to touch. Smells were emitted, incense and other liquids such as blood, urine, petrol, turpentine, ammonia, vinegar, hot water and milk (were) spilled in the theatre. This is how the orgy-mystery theatre came into being, through which language was transcended. Only real events were to be represented. The Orgy-Mystery Theatre was born."

(Hermann Nitsch)