Dezeuze, Anna, The 1960s: A Decade Out-of-Bounds,

“Consumerism, technology, shifts in the labor market, and the rapid expansion of the art market and cultural institutions were only some of
the social phenomena with which artists were confronted in the 1960s. One of the paradoxes of the decade, in fact, is that the climate of
economic growth and apparent stability of late capitalism was precisely what allowed for a steadily growing dissent. Art’s relation to these
unprecedented social and economic phenomena is complex. As I will discuss in section III, in some cases, artists or critics declared their
allegiance to a specific political agenda.” Si aici merge introdus poate muehl cu comuna lui de stanga p 47

“A third perspective on the relations between art and politics in the 1960s is suggested by Tom Crow in his notion of art as a “laboratory of a
future politics” in which a new “sensibility” or “attitude” can be developed at the same time, and even before, it becomes explicitly political.”

“Although there were very clear, and urgent, battles to be fought – against the war, against racism, for the promotion of civil rights, women’s
liberation, and gay rights – other forms of protests were more general. The main activist political force in the 1960s was the New Left, which
defined itself in its abandonment of some of the traditional beliefs and most strategies of the old socialist and communist left. As the New Left
expanded into a mass movement, “revolution” came to equate for some anything from rock music to public nudity or the use of hallucinogenic
drugs. With these political developments in mind, this section will focus on two aspects of this “sensibility” in relation to 1960s artistic
practices: first, a renewed interest in the body as the site of sexual revolution, desire, and pleasure, and, second, the idea of community” 47-
48

“The notion of sexuality as a taboo subject had been inherited from the 1950s, a quasi-Victorian period of social conservatism in Europe and
the United States; for this reason, the promotion of practices such as sex before marriage, contraception, and sexual experimentation is
probably one of the most enduring legacies of the 1960s” p. 48 => sexuality in that time

The joyful corporeality of her performances was carried over into film in her intimate Fuses (1964–7), which shows herself and her partner
making love. Fluxus artist Yoko Ono’s Film no. 4 exhibited a similar sexual frankness in a simple sequence of close-ups of walking naked bottoms
of all sizes and shapes, which caused outrage when it was first shown in London in 1966. p. 48

In contrast to Schneemann and Ono, the Viennese Actionists, a group of Austrian artists working in the 1960s, created shocking and disgusting
collective performances in which bodies were mingled with blood, urine, excrement, and the carcasses of slaughtered animals. These
performances combined a politicized refusal of the repression of sexual perversions such as sado-masochism with consensual, but disturbing,
violence against women’s bodies.
=> p. 48 which means that I might search something about women and
feminism in history and art in that period of time Another Viennese artist, Valie Export, tackled the issues of women’s
freedom and enslavement dramatically in works such as her 1968 Touch and Taste Cinema. In this work, she paraded in the street with a
curtained box around her bare chest and invited passers-by to reach through the curtains and touch her breasts while she gazed at them, thus
simultaneously inviting and frustrating the traditional objectification of the female body in patriarchal society. P. 49
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/109931?locale=en

In the archconservative context of 1960s Austria, the Viennese Actionists seemed to have been exorcising nationally-specific ghosts such as the
violence of Nazism and the complicity between the Catholic Church and the Austrian State. => the statute of church, the Nazis and
anti-semitism

They wanted to Udo Kultermann put it in 1971, “the hidden, forgotten, or buried ur-experiences that determine the elemental existence
of man,” and explore the taboos related to “the basic human symbols and constants” of death, sexuality, and food.20 p. 49

The collective nature of performances organized by Schneemann, the Viennese Actionists, Clark, or Kusama was a recurrent motif of 1960s
Happenings or “art-events,” and the site of significant crossovers between art and New Left politics during this period. From the first civil rights
groups led by Martin Luther King in the 1950s US, and the influential radical protest movement Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), an
egalitarian image of community based on collective decision-making became the motivating force behind New Left thought and protest activity.
Termed “participatory democracy,” it was associated with love, non-violence, and solidarity, and became an immediate model not only for the
organization of the protest group p. 58 new left
In his popular Eros and Civilisation (1955), the US-based Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse proposed that the revolutionary
potential of play and sexuality was actively repressed by a capitalist society bent on channeling these libidinal energies into productivity. In
order to counter this repression, Marcuse advocated in particular a return to instinctual behavior and a reversal of the guilt and purification
involved in “sublimating” these drives. Marcuse’s emphasis on “desublimation” was echoed in the works of certain artists investigating notions
of form and formlessness in painting and sculpture in the later 1960s p. 49 si aici pot sa intru in psihanaliza, unde era ea

If many artists had abandoned painting long before 1968, the effect of these social shifts was an increasing pressure to take political stances in
relation to these events p. 53

This dichotomy between a foundationalist objectivism and a nihilistic relativism spells out quite well the body/ anti-body debates I am trying to
describe here, which have deeply informed the production and interpretation of contemporary art: a dichotomy or tension between the
concomitant desire to produce the body as a tangible physicality leading to some truth about the subject and yet, the need to counter,
deconstruct, or historicize this desire. P. 379-380

The reemergence in the 1960s of body, action, and performance art (which could be said to have their roots not only in Dada poetry actions of
the late 1910s but also, for some artists, in non-Western tribal rituals) was a crucial moment in the embodiment of aesthetics, introducing a
form of artistic practice in which the artist’s body could be used both as material and expressive language. p. 380

body that discloses itself not so much as matter than as a materialization necessarily mediated by the contexts in which it is lived, located,
perceived, acted out, and acted upon.

Laura Mulvey’s psychoanalytically informed “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” the anti-essentialist feminist argument was preoccupied
by the gendered structuring of the gaze in modern and contemporary visual culture, whereby women systematically occupy the position of to-
be-looked-at-ness in relation to the masculine viewer’s position as bearer of the look.7 Following Mulvey, constructionist feminists informed by
psychoanalysis and poststructuralist theory became highly suspicious of any representation of the female body and favored avant-gardist
distancing strategies to counter visual pleasure and the seductive powers of the image. But, despite this critique and because performance p.
381 psihanaliza, empowerment, power relations

But, despite this critique and because performance is usually known through photographic or filmic documentation, art historian Henry Sayre
has posited that performance art has always taken its power from the tension it sets up between presence and absence, playing on the
temporal dislocation of the document to secure its lasting effects.8 This is even true for body works dealing with more direct bodily
experiences, such as pain, masochism, and suffering. Hence, while the Viennese actionist Rudolph Schwarzkogler used photography to
represent himself bandaged as though in the aftermath of a self-castration, he in fact abused the documentary function of photography by
using another’s body as his stand-in in what was a faked rather than actual castration. P 381-82 aici chiar Rudolf schwartzkogler

Asa ca pana acum la psihanaliza am avea gaze-ul, castrarea, corpul lipsa, sublimare, dislocare (parca?)

Much effort, then, has been put into demonstrating that performance is about immediate presence or, inversely, about the discursiveness of
presence, its intersubjective reliance on otherness and indubitable relation to absence. Looking back at these
essentialist/constructionist/phenomenological struggles, one cannot but conclude that they manifest the persistent (Cartesian) uneasiness
toward the unruly and often unpredictable dimensions of corporeality. Most performances, however, are not reducible to these debates. When
Carolee Schneemann staged the multi-body Meat Joy in 1964, for example, hers was not just a critique of the modernist tradition of painting or
a mere unmasking of the politics of the female body, but also a celebration of the flesh in which bodies and meat (raw fish, plucked chickens,
uncooked sausages) were explored to produce an orgasmic sexuality, an ecstasy of excess (influenced by Artaud’s excremental philosophy)
(Figure 19.2). The performance not only brought vision, smell, taste, and touch to play interactively, but also potentially affected the psychic
dimension of sexual experience. The limits of constructivism are exposed by such visceral works. P. 382

Even Judith Butler’s critique of constructivism and theorization of the body as a performative materialization whereby the body exists not as a
constructed matter but as a “reenactment and reexperiencing of a set of meanings already socially established”12 are exposed as leaving
unimagined the how and why of re-enactment, of nature–culture difference, of corporeal transformations and bodily extensions into the world.
p. 382

In these more direct non-theatrical actions, the body is conveyed not as being before or beyond language but as articulating meaning in a way
distinct from the codes and structures of language; the body is explored precisely for the contradictions it puts into play, for the moments
when, as Lisa Wesley describes, “the live element breaks free” from the text governing the structure, “becoming ritualistic, improvised,
chaotic.” P.
383
La 389-390 e corpul disciplinat

Deci vorbim despre anii 80 p. 391 aici o mentioneazaz si pe kristeva

The Whitney’s 1993 Abject Art: Repulsion and Desire in American Art was one of the key exhibitions responsible for the terminology and the
relatively loose (often contradictory) use of the term to qualify the work of a diverse range of artists, from p. 391 despre abject
A few years earlier, Austrian artist Valie Export had performed Action Pants: Genital Panic (1968), in which she walked unannounced into an art
film theater in Munich wearing pants with her crotch exposed, challenging people to look at the “real thing” instead of passively consuming
pictures of women.42 Again, the body was explored as a strategy of visibility to question the politics of the gaze. P. 393

A more embodied approach to the spectacle emerged from performance and conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s. This work explores the
relationship between the image and the performer’s (or viewer’s) body, resulting in novel practices such as performance and installation art. At
times this approach borders on ritual; for instance, the Viennese Actionists, Joseph Beuys, and Carolee Schneemann integrate the image in a
complex performance that invests photography and film with significance beyond its representational, commodity, or aesthetic value p. 539
The Spectacular Image

Export, Valie, 49, 393, 540–1

Concerning Consequences: Studies in Art, Destruction, and Trauma

Born in 40, in timpul studiilor l-a cunoscut pe cel care mai tarziu va deveni cel care … Heinz cibulka, in 63
i-a intalnit pe gunter brus si otto muhl prin intermediul lui Hermann nitsch. Alaturi de edith adam a pus
bazele publicatiei das fieber care nu a aparut niciodata insa a devenit o fundatie pentru ceea ce avea sa
devina actionismul vienez. Dupa ce I a intalnit pe ceilalti, a distrus tot ceea ce realizase pana atunci in
materie de grafica, lucrari care erau puternic influentate de artisti precum marcel Duchamp, yves klein.
Aici e un apud. Intre 65 si 66 5 actiuni, 2 performances si 4 proiecte fotografice. In ultimii doi ani din
viata s-a dedicate graficii imaginand un spatiu ritual intititulat the consecrated Austrian pavilion. P. 274

In 64 a participat pentru prima oara intr-o actiune, luftballon konzert, alaturi de otto muhl. In actiunile
sale a ales sa comunice prin obiecte simbolice precum oglinda neagra, cutit, pahare cu diverse substante
chimice de diverse culori, unul cu vopsea albastra, burette de baie galben, oua, gaina, un creier, gunter
brus unelte care pot rani, Hermann nitsch animale eviscerate, momentul in care schwarzkogler a incetat
sa mai realiezeze asemenea actiuni a fost dupa un eveniment in care rochia anniei brus a luat foc. Dupa
aceea s-a dedicate ultimului sau proiect 6. Aktion. P. 276 dar aici am gasit un text mai potrivit Even though
some elements of Schwarzkogler’s actions can be compared to the concepts bv Nitsch, Mühl and Brus, already in his first actions he showed his
own extraordinary aesthetics. In contrast to his colleagues, he incorporated the room in his concept. For his 1st action he created a special
setting: He painted the room blue and white and placed certain blue objects in it- such as a cylinder, a globe and two planks. He arranged
utensils reminding of a laboratory on a white set table, amongst them fish, a chicken wrapped in paper, fine crystals in different colours, glasses
filled with blue colour, as well as gauze bandages and surgical instruments. Typical attributes of Schwarzkogler’s work are the mirror and the
globe that reappear as motifs in his following actions. A similarly important part was the dissection of the fish, symbolising eroticism, coldness,
illness, danger and death. http://www.westlicht.com/en/collection/photographic-collection/1st-action-wedding/
For several reasons Schwarzkogler was not happy with the course the action took, he was a perfectionist and felt irritated and disturbed by the
presence of the audience and the three photographers. For this reason he changed the concept and began to perform his actions alone or with
the help of only one photographer present to take images. This distinguished him from his colleagues.
La 276-77 descrie 6.aktion
TRIMITERILE 5 12 13 14 15 16 20 21 26 27 28 29 31 32
cum a descries nitsch actiunile lui schwarzkogler 277
Vincent van gogh ul body art ului p 277
Foarte misto trimitere facuta la umberto eco cu referire la confuzia facuta de hughes din time 277
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rudolf-schwarzkogler-4823
p. 280 cum moare.
Extreme orient mysticism p. 280
Plus astrologie, multe din simbolismul folosit se regaseste in atributele

La p 281 aduce in discutie si aura lui walter Benjamin

Asklepion
Nu se stie totusi daca avea cunostinta de asemenea chestii dar a fost influentat de nitsch si cercetarea
lui cu privire la miturile care stau la baza culturii europene. Actionismul ca un self mythologizing artists.

Critical Terms for Art History, Second Edition

Performance – multiple aesthetic tasks
Inca din 1950 kaprow p. 88
Performance – it does something and that s all – ca explicatie ca prin 90 a fost adoptat termenul

The stakes of the body are raised in culture, revitalizing art by itself by drawing it away from commercial
stagnation and ingrowing formalism and refocusing it on human, corporeal necessity.

through mimesis, performance heightens the relations among unmediated reality, imitation, and
representation, challenging distinctions between the real and the artificial. the orgies mysteries tehater
by austrian artist is a good example. beginning in 1957 at the age of 19 begn to theorize the omt. a
hybrid presentational art, the omt draws upon and synthesizes greek tragedy, opera, and judeo-christian
rituals in a happening-like and participatory atmosphere. the omt combines live, nunde body actions
with elaborate and varied music, architecture, animal sacrifice and the use of their carcasses, organs,
and blood to create complex visual performance. nitsch s aesthetic sensibility demands formal
perfection, yet the content of the omt is resoundingly controversial and political in its exploration of the
destructive and violent history and practices of western culture. the omt resembles a medieval morality
play in its externalization and dramatization of psychological and spiritual conflict, and the personal and
social battle between good and evil. while nitsch fuses nudity, blood and entrails, and blasphemous
images of dionysian orgy with christian symbolism, he employs these elements allegorically as
metaphors for cathartic experiences aimed at healing the psychic pain of a violent culture. the plays of
the omt, therefore, are self-contained art events, even though they may last for many hours or days. P.

Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists'

Writings
material action is painting represented in action. self therapy made visible. using food stuff, it works like
a psychosis produced by mixing objects, human bodies and material. everything is planned. anything can
be used and worked as material. p 750 despre materialaktion si inainte am despre omt.

The-Art-Of-Destruction-The-Films-Of-The-Vienna-Aktion-Group
their actions = in improvised cellar spaces and in the streets of vienna rather than art museums or galleries
their own bodies and those of friends or dead animals
undertook a series of experimentss that disassembled the human body and its acts into compacted gestures of blood, semen and meat.
were reviled in vienna for transforming the city into a slaughterhouse laboratory of the extremities and sensorial capacities of the human body.
all of the acts performed as unique events: vanishing as their rush of provocation and intesive concentration burned out. p. 5

the films made by the group and by filmmakers collaborators

their projects gnerated photographic series, drawings and paintings, film is the sensitized medium - as unique, manipulable and ferocious in its
impact as the corporeal material upon which the aktion group worked.
the four principal figures who made up otto hermann brus schwarz (iar eu aici o sa adaug )

p. 6 the image does not document the action: it dissects it, seizez material from it, launches itself from th action in order to create an
autonomous film work that holds and even aggravates the provocation or obscenity of that action.
many actions created explicity to be filmed.
explosive combustion and creative exhilaration, encompassing collective refusals of society and warfare, wholesale reformulations of sex and
its imageries (with the ascendance of the pornographic film industry, alongside art forms which projected and incited the sexyal freedom of
young, dissident populations), and also a deep charge of aberrance, disturbance ad sensory violence which accompanied such transformation.
the work of the vienna aktion group carried the marks of all three of those transformations:social refusal, sexual upheaval, and perverse
cruelty. pai aici e cam incomplet.
entrenchedly reactionar country in europe acolo a fost undertook their work, one whose own aberrance had produced both psychoanalysis and
aggressive fascism (as brus often emphasized, it was the country which had formed and launched adolf hitler)
vienna was not prepated for the rovocations of the aktion group and responded with severe jail terms, heavy fines, and a violent media frenzy
which would cause all four of the vienna aktion group to exit vienna by the end of the 60s.

autorul zice ca a fost un oras fascist in 60s. much of the bureaucracy if tge nazi regie had its axis in vienns.
many of the power structures and social attitudes put in place by the nazis remained intact in vienna.
they had different experiences and memories of the war. muehl had been just old enough to be conscripted to fight in the war and has
witnessed massacres of his comrades. nitsch had seen the large scae destruction and ruination of vienna by fire-bombing. schwarzkogler s
father commited suicide at the battle of stalnigrad after having his legs blown off in combat. the vienna aktion group were the deviant children
of european fascism. asta o data

acum despre religie

reconsideration or refusal of religion in europe, even in austria. investigation of eastern religion + atheistic and nihilistic alliances all found their
mark in the art and revolt of 60s viena.
sex alone constituted a new religion in 60s. those up-heavals temporarily unsettled the mystical catholicism that had been rooted there since
the time when god himself had intervened to repel the islamic invaders from turkey who had besiegged and partially destroyed the city in 83.

religion became a primary target for the vienna aktion group and nits s blood orgies and exhaustive rituals with their crucified human and
animal bodies outraged the city s burgeois and media powers.

nitsch s religious obsession operated at a destructive tangent to catholicism, incorporating from many Eastern religions and catalysing itself
with an ele-
ment of social outrage and direct provocation that reflected the revolutionary
furore of the time. Nitsch’s actions, despite their religious inflections, could mu-
tate wildly into blood-sodden, cacophonous chaos that was the antithesis of
catholicism (Nitsch was prepared also to stage his actions within the context of sa-
tanic events). And finally, in his ultimately self-directed actions, Nitsch himself was
God. By contrast, Otto Muehl had a more caustic and wryly dismissive approach to
religion, while Schwarzkogler immersed himself assiduously in studies of Eastern
religions as part of the intricate process of self-negation that would lead to his sui-
cide.
In retrospect, the Vienna Aktion Group pursued the most extreme and creatively
exacting performance art of the 1960s, using the urban space of Vienna as the
arena for many of their experiments; forty years on, their work has become lauded,
institutionally collected and revered, and governmentally recognised in Austria (al-
beit ambivalently). But in the 1960s, the Vienna Aktion Group were criminals. Their
projects led directly to their being thrown into prison for periods of weeks and
months at a time, and subjected to heavy fines which (as income-less performance
artists) they were often unable to pay; more lengthy periods of penal incarceration
were in prospect for the Aktion Group at the time of their disintegration at the end
of the 1960s. The film Action Vienna Walk, shot by Muehl of Brus’ street-action and
arrest in 1965, demonstrated the immediacy and pervasiveness of the suppression
under which the Aktion Group habitually worked. After an event in 1968 in which
Brus defecated before a large public audience and then masturbated while singing
the Austrian national anthem, both the Austrian media and judicial systems fo-
cused their attention on obliterating him and the rest of the Aktion Group; both
Brus and Nitsch fled Austria into exile (Brus stayed away for many years), while the
project which Otto Muehl now conceived as the extension of his 1960s perfor-
mances and films – the establishment of an egalitarian commune in which prop-
erty was outlawed and sex was always freely available, especially for Muehl himself
– would eventually lead him to a further period of imprisonment in Austria, for sex-
ual crimes, from 1991 to 1997. The work of the Vienna Aktion Group, however it
may be rehabilitated or banalized, still insurges against passification and insti-
tutionalisation. In the 1960s, that work was explicitly conceived and socially per-
ceived as the work of art-criminals, and that criminal charge endures.
The performances and films of the Vienna Aktion Group and their collaborators ex-
erted a vast and worldwide impact, both during the period in which they were
undertaken and right through to the contemporary moment – in performance art
and body art, in experimental filmmaking, in choreography, and in digital art which
explores the evanescence and vanishing of the body and its images. The depth of
that impact has been demonstrated in recent years by such events as the Out of Ac-
tions performance-art exhibition, which prominently focused on the work of the Ak-
tion Group and was shown at major art venues in the United States, Japan and Eu-
rope in 1998-9; the exhibition of Muehl’s work at the Louvre in Paris in 2001-2; and
the large-scale action staged by Nitsch at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London in
2002.

In terms of resistance to globalisation and corporatism, and to their dissolution of

individual and corporeal identity, the acts of the Vienna Aktion Group also offer
seminal images of a ferocious and uncompromised resistance and reinvention.
The films of the Vienna Aktion Group provide the essential, aberrant traces of
those actions and anti-social projects, and this book will explore those films in
close conjunction with the preoccupations of the artists and the lasting inspiration
of their work.
Otto Muehl, the oldest of the Vienna Aktion Group artists and in many ways their
driving instigator, was born in 1925 in Grodnau, in the rural Burgenland area to the
south-east of Vienna. He was conscripted into Hitler’s army in the final period of
the Second World War, when casualties were vast on the disintegrating German
fronts; he fought in numerous last-ditch battles across Europe and was awarded
the Iron Cross. After the war, Muehl attended university and received training to
practice as a therapist for disturbed and handicapped children in Vienna. In the
early 1960s, he met the other three Aktion Group artists (all of whom were at least
a decade younger than him), each in different circumstances, and his active en-
couragement and participation in their work allowed the four artists to coalesce as
a loose – often volatile – grouping, which at various times they called the ‘Institute
for Direct Art’ and the ‘Vienna Aktion Group’. Muehl also provided the physical
space for many of the performances of the Aktion Group, in the emptied cellars
below the successive apartment blocks he lived in. Especially with Günter Brus,
Muehl served as an advisor and guide: a relentless provoker of ever-greater extrem-
ity in performance. Muehl was always conscious of the way in which film was
essential to his performance work (just as it would have a seminal role in his future
experiments with communal living); although he initially saw film primarily as a
way of documenting the work of the Aktion Group, it was Muehl who invited the
experimental filmmakers Kurt Kren and Ernst Schmidt Jr to bring their own disrup-
tive preoccupations to bear on the representation of his performance work and that
of Brus.

Muehl moved from painting into the arena of performance art at the beginning of
the 1960s, though he would intermittently continue painting and making collages
throughout the decade. Many of his early actions of 1964-6 – such as Mama and
Papa, Leda and the Swan, O Christmas Tree and Bodybuilding – were staged in en-
closed spaces in Vienna, especially his own cellar in the Perinetgasse alley, before
small invited audiences. Muehl and his naked collaborators (younger women and
men) amassed vast quantities of materials for each performance – feathers, eggs
and other foodstuffs, paint, blood and milk – which were unleashed in the exactly-
choreographed performances: the sexual organs of the participants were manip-
ulated, opened-up, crammed with materials or isolated from the rest of their bod-
ies in the disciplined frenzy of entangled figures. Muehl’s role in his actions was
always that of the agent of a gleeful or harsh incitation of his participants into a col-
lective sexual self-testing: an exploratory theory of headlong neural excess, probed
entirely by corporeal means. His performances were often broken-up by the police
and the participants abruptly expelled from the cellar-spaces. Muehl’s work re-
mained infamous only in Vienna until the mid-1960s; but by 1966, his growing
notoriety and that of the other Aktion Group artists began to lead to invitations to
perform outside Vienna, in front of larger, public audiences, most prominently at
the international ‘Destruction in Art Symposium’ in London in September of that
year.

Throughout the early years of his performance work, Muehl wrote many scripts for
his actions and also manifestoes of denunciation aimed at the repressive, still-
fascistic society that he saw as impeding his work. Muehl’s manifestoes are a con-
coction of outright provocation, delirious fantasy and deadly-serious admonition.
In his Zock manifesto of 1967, Muehl formulated a world-view of exclusion and
eradication that resonates with Antonin Artaud’s I Hate and Renounce as a Coward
texts of twenty years earlier, and with previous projects to decimate society, by
writers such as Sade and Lautréamont, all of them pitched between an insanely-
furious ‘délire de revendication’ of individual self-imposition on the world, and a
pure and active re-conception of terminally accursed societies. In his Zock mani-
festo, Muehl demands that sexual acts must now always taken place between indi-
viduals of different skin colours, to engender a detonation of national and racial
boundaries. He advocates a generalized chaos of incessant, revolutionary destruc-
tion. With an extreme rigour evocative of Pol Pot’s visions of the same period for
the future of Year-Zero Cambodia, Muehl demands the eradication of all books,
languages, art works, music and factories; the famines that will result from these
systematic destructions are to be welcomed (human bodies can then ingest one
another in a lethal sexual pandemonium, with the weakest being consumed first).
Muehl also warmly advocates incest, filmed orgies and all kinds of bestiality, and
attempts to eradicate the distinction between human and animal life; however, he
demands the extermination of all ‘useless’ animals, together with the destruction
of forests and cities.

Vienna actionism and film

p. 136 had to deal with the question of how its works were to be handed down to posteriority but in the
same time filmul joaca un rol crucial a un mediu de documentare. Dincolo de chestiunea asta in
interactiunea dintre actionisti si film exista o problematica complexa.

1. filmarile au fost facute de diferiti oameni cu diferite scopuri: artistii ori se filmau ei insisi ori rugau
prieteni sau colegi sa faca asta. alte ori fotografii profesionisti care au fost implicati au fost kurt kra sau
Ernst Schmidt.

2. de multe ori actiunile lor nu erau destinate a fi reprezentate in fata unui public si erau realizate pentru
camera, lucru ce s-a intamplat din ce in ce mai des in conditiile in care devenea din ce in ce mai greu
pentru ei sa organizeze evenimente publice.

3. schwarzkogler a lasat concept pt filme si instalatii care nu au fost niciodata realizate.

Their own approach to film. Their attitude to film ambivalent.

1. Film- useful to them as a reproductive medium care putea fi usor de distribuit. Muehl a realizat
actiuni publice in principal in Germania. Pe de alta parte teama lor o reprezenta faptul ca filmele
ar putea fi distruse si, in acelasi timp, ca acestea nu reusesc sa transmita esenta actiunilor lor. De
asemenea, alt artist finid responsabil de film, acestia pierdeau controlul asupra aspectelor
estetice ale acestora.

Pentru nitsch importanta era experienta senzoriala directa care, prin film, era afectata. Obiectia lui
era ca in film totul pare fals astfel, filmul, inderpatandu-se de esenta actiunii reprezentata de
realitate. In ciuda acestui fapt, un numar mare de video-uri care documenteaza actiunile sale au
parvenit incepand cu primul action painting. Cand a facut trecerea de la action painting la action in
62 si a pierdut temporar interesul in a realiza filmari dupa acestea. Doar a 9 a actiue a lui a fost
documentata de muehl si kurt kren. Acestea nu au fost ultimele insa toate au fost nesatisfacatoare
pentru nitsch.

A 21 a actiune merita mentionata. Diferenta dintre film si video – gesamtkunstwerk

Schwarzkogler interest de arta filmului,

Descriere dupa satisfaction plus aia cu jahre, e interesant ca sunt singurele performance uri in care
apare si ca in comparative cu ceilalti e mai static.

Deci ideea e ca avem diverse atitudini fata de film, video si actiuni. Am realizat asta cand am ajuns la
pg. 144.

Mai ales vedem o preocupare a lui muehl pt film in manifesto ul sau scris in 68. He also coined the
term cinema direct art – action on reality. Si avem aici si definitia cinema direct art.

Funebre e conventional in timp ce zock exercises – more conceptual approach to the medium of
film. Methodical approach based on screenplays with scenes and shots determined in advance. Cele
doua directii prea putin aveau de a face cu direct art

Traditional depictive realism in 69.

Actiunile lui gunter brus filmate de kren his film does not allow an exactreconstruction of the events.

Lingers on details of the face f the actor which – lucru care il distinge de filmele celorlalti

Wiener spaziergang documentata de muehl si schwarzkogler

Body analysis – his type of action, proiectul cu kurt kren, the way in wich Hitchcock etc.

From self painting to self analysis and mutilation SO E INTERESANT CA SE VEDE O EVOLUTIE IN
ABOORDAREA LOR, NU DOAR CA SI HERMANN NITSCH PLEACA DE LA ACTION PAINTING

P. 150

AUTORUL ZICE ca kurt kren si Schmidt sunt cei care au facut cunoscut actionismul vienez in lumea
artei.

https://www.filmmuseum.at/jart/prj3/filmmuseum/main.jart?rel=en&reserve-
mode=active&content-id=1219068743272&schienen_id=1215680369254

gunoi ca motive vizuale la kurt kren in acelasi an cand muehl a descoperit altele asemenea ca
material artistic.

154 ce zice muehl despre filmele lui kren

Acum Ernst Schmidt http://www.sixpackfilm.com/de/catalogue/filmmaker/263

 Practicile filmice ale celor doi nu raspundeau nevoilor lui muehl si brus

Pagina 155 foarte important, vorbeste de tehnicile folosite de ei si ii pune in contrast.

http://www.e-flux.com/journal/54/59833/sexuality-in-a-non-libidinal-economy/
Foucault attributed the notion of sexuality to the emergence of bourgeois society. He located the origin
of sexuality in the discourses that regulated health, clinical deviation, and medical care in post-
disciplinary societies.

Thus, the superseding of Eros by individual sexuality goes hand in hand with the birth of bourgeois
society; the aristocratic poetics of amorous sentiment were replaced by analytical stratification and the
control of health, pleasure, and disease.

Omg deci e interesant e ca rana pura a capitalismului – o data avem razboi, o data avem o manifestare de
genul asta care are menirea sa inlocuiasca razboiul. Deci ori avem razboi sange si de toate ,pe de alta parte e
si cultul asta al corpului, se dezvolta pornografia, filmele horror, consum al corpului haotic care nu consuma
totusi ceeac e avem noi nevoie sa fie consumat si se perpetueaza o stare continua de tensiune care va avea ca
finalitate razboiul ori ei vor altceva.

Amos film as a subversive art

MAMA UND PAPA)

(Otto Muehl, Austria, 1963/69)

The unexpected combination of sexual taboo and food provokes both shock and laughter, not
merely because of the visual pun but because organs are not often presented to us in "tasteful"
display for purposes of eating p. 325

"AKTION SS AND STAR OF DAVID", from THE LASCIVIOUS WOTAN (Otto Muehl, Austria, 1971) The
bad conscience of the German displayed in the ultimate sexual fantasy, combining the brutality of
the Nazi SS (significantly enacted by Muehl on the left and helper) with the defenseless
attractiveness of the victimized Jewess already tattooed with the symbol no German can exorcise.
P. 391

SODOMA (Otto Muehl, Austria, 1970) (F) A scene from Otto Mueh's "happenings" evokes, in its
sado-masochist horror and defilement, the evil memories (if not present realities) of a civilization of
concentration camps and genocide. Franju's slaughterhouse film, The Blood of the Beasts -- another
ideological statement of our day -- is not too far off. P. 415

Whether he is also the most subversive is the subject of a continuing international debate, with
even some liberal critics denouncing him as fascist, or at least, anti-humanist. But it is a grave
mistake to misinterpret Muehl's work as pornographic, thereby underestimating its seditious,
anarchist intent. P. 415
Filmele lui baate pe materialaktionen anti aesthetism, dada

Society of defilement,

Exorcise cruelty, confronting the spectator with something not fraudulent but with the act itself. P.
416.

Demistificare a sexului, un act pur corporal.

coprofilie p. 416

His images -- in their combination of explicit sexuality and violent defilement -- would appear to be
even more "subversive" than those of the now almost standard hardcore pornographic films. P. 416

Vina colectiva tot acolo

citat otto muehl p. 417 face filme sa provoace scandal, pornografia – sa curete

sodoma

p. 421 It is significant that Muehl's

provocations (and those of artists inspired
by him) occur in countries traumatized by
Nazism that now find themselves impotent
between two unscrupulous, violent power blocs. Vorbeste aici despre defecare
care trebuie publica afisata.

a companion
Arthur Frank observed that sociology’s renewed interest in the body during
the late 1980s and early 1990s (one, I would note, paralleled in the art world)
has been shaped by “the contradictory impulses of modernity” – between the
positivist spirit that posits the body as a solid and separate object, linked to
the Enlightenment belief in a transcendental reason beyond the body, and
the poststructuralist and postmodernist sense of constant flux in which the body
gains in impermanence and fragmentation.3 This dichotomy between a foundationalist
objectivism and a nihilistic relativism spells out quite well the body/
anti-body debates I am trying to describe here, which have deeply informed the
production and interpretation of contemporary art p. 379

a dichotomy or tension
between the concomitant desire to produce the body as a tangible physicality
leading to some truth about the subject and yet, the need to counter, deconstruct,

p. 380 The reemergence in the 1960s of body, action, and performance art (which
could be said to have their roots not only in Dada poetry actions of the late

1910s but also, for some artists, in non-Western tribal rituals) was a crucial
moment in the embodiment of aesthetics, introducing a form of artistic practice
in which the artist’s body could be used both as material and expressive language.
Since 1950, performance art (to use the more general term) has taken
different configurations and denominations: from Jackson Pollock’s action paintings
and John Cage’s explorations of sound, silence, and music, to Allan Kaprow’s
Happenings and Fluxus events, to Annie Sprinkle’s intersubjective explorations of
the desiring subject, to Hannah Wilke and Jo Spence’s autobiographical deploy-

All these bodily manifestations stage a body in time and space

(often in front of an audience but not necessarily), a body that discloses itself
not so much as matter than as a materialization necessarily mediated by the
contexts in which it is lived, located, perceived, acted out, and acted upon.

Derrida himself reproved Antonin

Artaud’s 1938 The Theatre and Its Double (an influential text for the group
of performance artists associated with Viennese actionism), in which the artist
advocated a cathartic theater to reverse the privilege of the intellectual over
the sensory through rituals of gestural and vocal exaltation brought to the limit,
as manifesting a nostalgia for presence.5 … But, despite this critique and because performance is usually known
through
photographic or filmic documentation, art historian Henry Sayre has posited
that performance art has always taken its power from the tension it sets up
between presence and absence, playing on the temporal dislocation of the document
to secure its lasting effects.8 This is even true for body works dealing with
more direct bodily experiences, such as pain, masochism, and suffering. Hence,
while the Viennese actionist Rudolph Schwarzkogler used photography to represent
himself bandaged as though in the aftermath of a self-castration, he in fact
abused the documentary function of photography by using another’s body as his
stand-in in what was a faked rather than actual castration

p. 381

Much effort, then, has been put into demonstrating that performance is about
immediate presence or, inversely, about the discursiveness of presence, its
intersubjective reliance on otherness and indubitable relation to absence. 382

Even Judith Butler’s critique of constructivism and theorization

of the body as a performative materialization whereby the body exists
not as a constructed matter but as a “reenactment and reexperiencing of a set
of meanings already socially established”12 are exposed as leaving unimagined
the how and why of re-enactment, of nature–culture difference, of corporeal
transformations and bodily extensions into the world p. 382

The body is the inscribed surface of events (traced by language and dissolved by
ideas), the locus of a dissociated self (adopting the illusion of a substantial unity),
and a volume in perpetual disintegration. Genealogy, as an analysis of descent, is
thus situated within the articulation of the body and history. Its task is to expose a
body totally imprinted by history and the process of history’s destruction of the
body.29
Foucault’s model breaks with the quest for the origin and the linear laws of
historical change partly by situating the body as the central element of study; it
shows how what was traditionally thought to escape the laws of history (by its
exclusive obedience to the laws of physiology) is in fact “molded” and “broken
down” by a variety of regimes.30 A privileged site of control and power, Foucault’s
poststructuralist body exists as acted upon, “a featureless tabula rasa,” in the
words of Terence Turner, “awaiting the animating disciplines of discourse,”
while sometimes (rarely) able to resist through deviant erotic practices.31 In the
more conceptual art works dealing with the ways in which the body is shaped by
social rules prescribing normative gender, sexuality, race, and nationhood, the
tendency has been to develop visual strategies that disclose these hidden mechanisms
of power. Disclosure becomes here a form of agency – a mode by which
the viewer is made conscious of the forces that turn the subject into a docile
body. P. 390

A
few years earlier, Austrian artist Valie Export had performed Action Pants: Genital
Panic (1968), in which she walked unannounced into an art film theater in
Munich wearing pants with her crotch exposed, challenging people to look at
the “real thing” instead of passively consuming pictures of women.42 p 393

the artist is present

Abramovic; reveals her desire to recreate the supposed performance that took place in the actual porn
theatre—but this historical “fact” about the “real performance” has, since Abramovic;’s project was
performed and documented, now been exposed as a myth by art historian Mechtild Widrich, who
interviewed the photographer of EXPORT’s documents, Peter Hassmann, and discovered that apparently
she never actually went to a porn theatre but told this story later as a mode of embellishing the
performative images (Widrich forthcoming). In this extraordinary case, we seem to have “evidence”
(again one must be careful in claiming “facts”) that the original artist, EXPORT, performatively enacted
through discourse and photographic imagery a “performance” that never took place as mythically
described. Widrich is one of a new generation of art history and performance studies scholars who are
poised to begin to understand the significance of such gaps and contradictions, reveling in the
impossibility of knowing for sure rather than claiming to find final meanings. EXPORT’s refusal to speak
to Abramovic; simply exposes further the extent to which our understanding and beliefs about past
works are always contingent on what information is available to us—as Widrich’s research makes p. 29

Deci influenta dinspre artaud de care scrie ala pe care l am folosit pt prezentare iar in body art

Performing the body Amelia jones

The performance of subject that would correspond “to the agitation and unrest characteristic of our
epoch” trimitere 2, la inceput

A similar relationship for body art practices which enact subjects in passionate and convulsive
relationships and thus exacerbate, perform and/or negotiatie the dislocating effects of social and private
experience in the late capitalism

BODY ART THAT INSTANTIATE THE DISLOCATION OR DECENTERING OF THE CARTESIAN SUBJECT OF
MODERNISM despre care Amelia jones spune ca e ce numim pomo. Aici trimiterea 3.
Body art as an instantiation of the profound shift in the conception and experience of subjectivity that
has occurred over the past three decades. Pg 10

Pose the subkect as intersubjective contingent on the other rather than complete within itself

These projets make clear that the Cartesian I think therefore I am the logic powering modernist art
history and practice wherein the body privileged as male is transcended through pure thought or
creation, is no longer viable in the decentering regime of postmodernism. P. 10

I see poststructuralism as one of the mody dynamic modes of the speaking if a new experience of
subjectivity, as the philosophical version of what body art enacts in the realm of culture. While body art
is surely not the only type of cultural production to instantiate the dispersal of the modernist subject I
argue here that it is one of the most dramatic and thorough to do so if it is engaged with on the deepest
level of its production, precisely because of its entailment of the subject as embodied in all of its
particularities of race, class, gender, sexuality, and so on. P 11

Deci zice foarte bine si ma ajuta si pe mine, ea nu zice de body art – ca contextual in care a aparut, nici
poststructuralismul, nici evenimentele sociale si procesele nu trebuie sa fie vazute drept cause a body
art ului si nici body art ul ca ceea ce le motiveaza aparitia ci, mai degraba, ca o instantiere – articulare si
reflective a schimbarior profunda in notiunea si experienta subiectivitatii in ultimii 30-40 de ani.

Okay deci femeia vorbeste de o schimbare a subiectului, perceptia subiectului in contextual postmodernitatii –
stim deja ca e o fragmentare etc p. 12.

Why did the implicitky masculine modernist artistic subject come increasingly into question through a
perforative conception of the artist as in process commodifiable as art object and intersubjectivity related
to the audience? P. 12

Position of the body as locus of a dstintegrated or dispersed self, as elusive marker of the subject s place
in the social, as hinge between nature and culture. … the term body art thus emphasizes the implication of
the body or what she calls the body self in the work. P. 12

Shift in the conception of subjectivity that I am performing as constitutive of the condition of pomo. P.
12.

Se focuseaza pe un moment particular in care corpul emerged in the visual artwork in a particularly
charged and dramatically sexualized and gendered way. Ceea ce a emerged pe atunci label ul de body art
– numit asa de cei care au vrut sa diferentieze asta de performance, ea e interesata de lucrarile care pot sau
nu neaparat avea loc in fata unei audiente initial, LUCRARI CARE AU LOC PRINTR-UN
ENACTMENT A CORPULUI ARTISTULUI , chiar daca are un set-up de performance sau in spatiul
privat al studioului. Documentat care poate fi experimentat prin foto film video text.

Body art ca

- Extensie a portraiture in general

 - Negotiation of the trajectory of performance art that emerged from the early 22th century.

Foarte intersant ce zice, zice de performance ca e definit de motivatia pe care o are in

spate si anume ca redemption belief in capacitatea artei de a transforma human life,
ca un vehicul de schimbare sociala in timp ce body art -ul nu strive catre a utopian
redemption ci, mai degraba, plaseaza corpul/self -ul in cadrul taramului esteticii ca un
domeniu politic articulate prin estetizarea corpului particularizat embedded in the
social and so unveils the hidden body that secured the authority of modernism.

Body art is not inherently critical nor inherently reactionary ci provides the possibility for radical
engagements that can transform the way we think about meaning and subjectivity. P. 14.

Demonstrates that meaning is an exchange and points to the impossibility of any oractice being inherently
positive or negative.

Projects the bodt of the artist into the work as a particularized subject, revising the relationship among
artist subject and public .. rethink the way in which we understand meaning to take place.

Body art orioises obiectul artistic ca un loc unde receptarea si producerea vin impreuna, confirma ca
subiectul capata inteles in relatie cu altii si locusul identitatii e mereu in alta parte.

The negative attitude toward body art on the part of many feminists then seems to have stemmed from a
well founded concern about the ease with which women s bodies have, in both commercial and artistic
domains, been constructed as object of the gaze. P. 24

Interesant aici critica adusa.

Aceasta distanciation poate fi aplicata sic and vine vorba de folosirea unor medii prin care sa fie documentata
actiunea.

In this way, body art projects and body oriented feminist art are simply rejected as necessarily
reiterating the structures of fetishism p. 25

Any representation of the female body was seen as necessarily participating in the phallocentric
dynamic of fetishism. P. 28

Deci e interesant, zice ca prohibitia imptriva reprezentarii sau includerea corpului in lucrari si impotriva
efectelor de placer care le acompaniaza => o departare de body art si o exludere istorica rezultata
ulterioara a body art-ului si a marii majoritati a oracticilor feminist din us. Din 80. P. 29

in aceasta departare de corp, pomo se defineste nu in relatie cu sbuiectivitatea, identitatea ci situate in

termini de strategie a productiei.

Definite in relatie cu apropriere, alegorie, pastisa, critica institutional p. 29

Apropriere montaj – unified impuls din spatele artei postmoderne.

s-au focusat pe efectele politice ale lucrarilor, capacitatea lor de critica institutional determinate de
structural or formala sau narativa.

Body art – complica tendinta de a codifica pomo in termini de strategii artistice de productie. P. 30

Solicita spectatorul mai degraba si nu distant, distantarea, atragandu l in lucrare si elicita placer ceea ce
e o influenta a commodity culture insa cu efecte diferite. Insista pe subiectivitate si identitati ca
component central in orice practica cultural. Sa highlightuiasca subiectivitatea (se concentreaza pe
fenomenologie si poststructuralism) in dimensiunea sexual si de gen ca fiind problem centrale ale pomo.
P. 31.

Foarte interesant ca autoarea asta se concentreaza mereu pe absenta corpului. Only

paper. In cazul asta. p. 32

Cum putem lega comodificarea de direct cinema al caror adepti erau baietii astia? Ca
zice aici de una ca incercand sa evita aproprierea si comodificarea alegea sa nu le
documenteze. Cae e relatia lor cu comodificarea si fetisismul? La tan ti asta vede chiar
cum documetnarea a devenit un mod prin care sa faa totul mai real.

Body art ul ridica problema realului in relatie cu subiectele si obiecteleproducerii si receptarii. Ridica
problem de ontology a obiectului ca si statutul subiectului al productiei estetice.

Asigura presenta artistului. Ba chiar delivers informatia direct prin transformare.

Prezinta, nu reprezinta. She is both signifier and that which she is signified. P. 33

Its play in cadrul simbolicului si dependent de documentare pentru obtinerea unui statut symbolic in
cadrul taramului culturii dezvaluie imposibilitatea obtinerii cunoasterii a self-ului prin proximitatea
trupului. Avand contact fizic direct cu artistul nu afecteaza in niciun fel receptarea in comparatie cu un
material documentar , film sau pictura. P. 33-34

Intrebarea care apare e ce se intampla cu actionistii? Care e rezultatul scontat de ei?

E valabil ce zice jones in cazul lor?

Dependent on the ways in which the image is contextualized and interpreted..acting as a supplement to
the actual body … proof of the self and its endless deferral. P. 35

La p. 36 vb de schwarzkoglersi .. supplement of a supplement, ce zice roland brthes

Krauss p. 36-7 2 tipuri de indexicalitate pt perf si photo, amandoua lucreaza ca substitute pt prezenta
fizica pentru un limbaj mai articulate al conventiei estetice, ea adauga ca ambele suplimenteaa indexul
insusi pt ca nu e vreun gest original catre care ne indica indexul. In video si perf sis foto –
suplimentaritate mutual a corpului si subiectului. The body art evend needs the photograph to confirm
its having happened; the photograph needs the body art event as an ontological anchor of its
indexicality. P. 37
Body art – dissolving the Cartesian subject

Cartesian subject- with a long history in western thought. Dualistic conception cogito vs corp – a
dominat iluminismul si modernismul. P. 37

Aceeasi chestie din modernism a influentat body artistii au inceput sa joac subiectivitatea intrupata in
relatie cu aduienta cu schimbul intersubiectiv .

Operand concomitant cu schimbari in gandirea filosofica si in acleasi timp si de pe taramul social unde
subiectul normative a fost schimbat de micsari sociale diverse. Body art ul dizolva opozitia conceptiei
cartieziene a eului si disolva si subiectul modernitatii.

Deci practic defineste body art ul prin excelenta postomderna p. 39

Corp public si privat

Citat 58 foarte misto, e expresia noastra in lume. Forma vizibila a intentiilor noastre. pontyan

DECI DESCENTERED SELF FROM POSTSTRUCTURALISM

Jason vine cu alta propunere – body art enacts and performrs sau instantiaza
intruparea si impletire dintre self si ceilalti.

Body art e una din acele manifestari care se articuleaza cintingenta reciprocitatii subiectului – tendinta
pomo.. deci exista o legatura in teoriile semiotice cu atacurile cartesianismului a caror intertwining
confirma explorarea body art ului printr-un cadru theoretic feminist, fiind interrelated in diolvarea
subiectului p. 38

THE PHILOSOPHICAL NOTION OF THE SELF AS AN EMBODIED PERFORMANCE WAS EXPANDED AND
DEVELOPED HROUGH BODY ART’S RADICAL OPENING UP OF THE STRUCTURES OF ARTISTIC
PRODUCTION AND RECEPTION. !!!!!!!!!!!! BODY ART ENACTED THE ACTIVIST, PARTICULARIZED BODY OF
THE RIGHTS MOVEMENT-THE INTERSUBJECTIVE, PERFORMATIVE SELF OF PHENOMENOLOGY-WITHIN
THE ART MAKING AND RECEPTION. P. 39

Intelesul si semnificatia eului performativ nu e inerent sau transcendent ci derivate din propria scena de
actiune. Care rastiarna selful catesian sinele p. 39

The body cannot be thought separate de sine p. 39 dupa marleau-ponty

Fenomenologia il vede intrupat, performativ, intersubiectiv dar si in relatia cu dialectica relatiei dintre
un sine si un celalalt. Iar aceasta intersubbiectivitate care e contingenta de celalalt a fost expanded and
radicalized nnu doar de poststructuralism si feminism (pt ca articuleaza o teorie anti-cartesiana a
subiectului), asa cum incearca sa demonstreze, si de body art. P. 40.

Face o diferenta intre ponty si Sartre, ponty vede mai degraba relatia sine/celalalt in simultaneitate
decat conflict. Subiect obiectificare p. 40
Asta e cu the world is flesh e cam mult dupa parerea mea…

Cel care fae arta sic el care o interpreteaza colaboreaza unu cu celalalt intr-o reciprocitate consummate.

Acum e muta la relatia minte si corp. intruparea sinelui

Butler vine critic la ponty asta care priveste, ca toti cei de pana atunci, toata treaba asta din perspective
masculine, prin asimetrie d egen.

Reworked cu awareness la puterea through gender in patriarchy. Simone

Subjectivity as other-directed in body art

Tradition of the cult of the self in art – 47

De e turn to themselves cand fragmentarea sinelui era asa evident?

Putem vedea narcissism la ei? Hm

Disolutie familie nuclear cauzata de disturbance o the oedipal structure si other oriented self

Body art plays out the narcissism that lasch identifies with the postwar,late capitalist dissolution of
paterna authority and the nuclear family.

Vorbeste si de abject aici p. 50

Sa vedem ce e cu butler si abjectul

Cum realizeaza valie export critica feminista plecand de la ce gasim aici? Sa citesc
butler pentru asta p. 50 pe acolo

broken for You Herman Nitsch and the Building of Community

Deci ce face femeia e sa studieze utilizarea limbajului visual crestin de ca tre
Hermann nitsch prin care incearca sa creeze o anume experienta a comunitatii.

BLOOD ORGAN IN 62 CA MOMENTUL DE INVEPUT A

ACTIONISMULUI

Abreactie

Experienta sensoriala, catharsis

Inlocuirea materialului textile

Attempt building community via in abreactive communal encounter with the body and exposure to its
finitude

Jean luc nancy – radical inclusion of the body => opportunity for a shared exposure to finitude intre
singular beings si a true being in common. .

Deci bine pus in evident, avem climatul p olitic, foarte itneresant zice aici de
generational guilt, dupa aia avem consumer culture unde as putea baga partea cu
narcisismul de la Amelia jones p. 132 Ce e communal existence? Max weber =>
alienation pe de alta parte + industrializare si urbanizare

discuta si despre religie, interesant, sa tinem maine ca e important p. 133

Nitsch’s reference to Christian ritual, to the death

and resurrection of Christ which is the origin of the Christian community, as well as to the orgy
which is a communal
sexual act, demonstrates his work’s emphasis on the coming-together of beings, one that is
centred around
the body and the expression of its limits. P. 133

transubstantialitatea, cina cea de taina si crucificarea cele 3 momente p. 134. Si tot acolo comuniune
totala

interesant despre break ul ala p. 134

energie libidinala p. 134

POLITICAL GESTURE OMG p. 135

Cum se leaga accentual asta pus pe corp. ce e interesant e ca okay, omul zice ca exista
un withdrawal a religiozitatii dar noi stim din teoria artei ca in perioada respectiva
accent pus pe corp deci aici corpul lui isus p. 135

Understood as communion and communion takes place, in its principle as in its ends, at the
heart of
the mythical body of Christ

e interesant ca vorbeste de the other p. 138 ca asta e being -in-common

Nitsch provided participants and

audiences with a familiar visual language and ritual practice, which are arguably integral parts of
western collective
consciousness at a moment when withdrawal from communitarian religion left a vacuum in its
wake. which tasked the sacrificial Death of. a saviour with continually reproducing “community”,
by basing belonging on participation in the ritual reenactment
of His sacrifice.138-139
a saviour with continually reproducing “community”, by basing belonging on participation in the
ritual reenactment
of His sacrifice. P. 139

p. 139 concluzia e super graitoare zic eu.

An Actionist Begins to Sing: Otto Muehl

Vorbeste de amos vogel p. 176

Si de Malcolm Green 176-177

Despre manifestul super stangist al lui muehl dar asta zice ca e parodic.

Removal of the frame

Interesant ce zice aici despre comuna lui, ca actionismul e recontextualizat p. 177

Deci sa intram putin in Wilhelm reich sa vedem ce zice despre communal action
analysis. E vb de pg. 177 si termenii communal action analysis, quantitative sex
economy, character armor that represses libidinal energy.

Deci si mai interesant ca noi aflam ca realiza chestii din alimente care erau lasate sa
se distruga dar e interesant ca imprumutand de la reich idei (intoarcerea lui catre
biophysics, drive for consuming hunger) se indreapta catre practica asta - ritualistic
representations of food consumption and ecs tatic-orgasmic release (including
vomiting) p.177

Intrebarea care apare e de ce mananca cacat? de unde scatofilia asta? embracing the
bodily functions and fluids etc. de ce mananca pana si viermi?

De ce sexualitate care implica animale? Am gasit aici, zice un autor ca as a means to

sublimity, not organic outrage p. 178 “ this actionist zoophilia is tautegorical, not
allegorical, restating selfhood in different, non-linguistic terms whose only offense
is unapologetic naturalness” si zice la pg. 179 ceva chiar okay despre material
action care explica si tautegorical ca practic opereaza cu simboluri si ca nimic nu are
ca scop sa explice ceva ci sunt ceea ce trebuie sa fie totusi abordarile astea vin in
corelatie cu propria filosofie estetica a ceea ce fac ei . Reprezentat de scheisskerl cel
mai bine, zice autorul ca “not simply an affront to our denial of bodily realities” p.
179,

The ass
is not always a cosmic vacuum or the gaping unknown; contrarily,
it can be that which is known all too well, and the shit issuing
forth frightens and enlightens for its incorruptible democracy. P. 179
We therefore encounter the paradox of Muehl’s real-time,

“materialistic” performances being discontinuously flash-edited and

temporally reconstituted through Kren’s anti-realist machinations p. 178

aici interesant din ala despre actionisti si filmele lor

paralela intre arta lui kren si muehl foarte misto emphasized p. 178 si da si exemple

FOARTE MISTO ZICE Muehl is no “mere” controversialist or provocateur but

a pragmatist whose radicalisms are entirely rational responses to
both moral hypocrisies and the limitations of representational
objectivity. P. 179 ….. Nevertheless, I look undeterred
to this experiment, where aesthetics, sociology, biophysics and
psychology intertwine, where “art” is not understood as representation
but as life, as self-representation, regulated neither by
commerce nor the State.

After the First

World War, people expressed outrage against society, because millions
of human beings were killed. No one was making art any more.
Instead, artists turned to destruction. Everything was possible. That
was situationism, something completely different from actionism. P. 181

I am against aggression. An important event for actionism occurred

in 1966: “DIAS,” the “Destruction in Art Symposium,” which
advocated destruction within art, but not outside it. Hitler wanted to
become an artist, but he worked in real life–he was never an artist. P. 181

destruction in art. Cat destruction, cat construction 1 – vedem statutul artistului, 2 –

rolul artei in societate pentru ca e clar ca ideea de arta frumoasa si arta pentru arta s -
au dus demult mai ales in conditiile in care nu putem vorbi de un frumos in cazul asta
dei putem vb mai degrba de un shift in functionalitate (si care e aia? Lucreaza pe mai
multe planuri, avem cathartica, subversive, politica, sa vedem unde bagam si freudismul
si marxismul). Nu e deustruction, nu e distraction ci e o confruntare face to face cu
conditia societatii, cu ipocrizia morala, mizeria morala. Si nu doar ca o onfrunta ci
vin cu alternative. vin oare? Nu doar ca oglinda ci si cu maner =))

uite si ce e cu comuna asta p. 181

183 desre kurt kren

Rather than standing in front of the picture, the

artist is in the picture. He does not sit like an analyst behind a screen.
The analyst-patient role is abolished. P. 184

Direct cinema p. 184

Cum are loc, care sunt fazele 185

p. 185 cu cat de staged erau

Art is an accusation, a form of critique. P. 186

Tot la pg aasta I know that they cannot be understood by the great majority of
people because people aren’t interested in art, don’t care about the
medium, are too uneducated, and ostensibly see only the repulsive. Art is an accusation, a form of
critique.

I fling the stench of the concentration camps into their faces with pleasure p. 186
DECI INTREBAREA E AL NAIBII DE BUNA
Do you
think that critics have dwelt excessively on the “shocking” qualities
of your films, to the exclusion of everything else? In a live
performance, an act such as shitting may repulse because of its
immediacy. In a film, however, we are alienated from the action, not
only because it is framed and edited, but because we can use only
two of our five senses to experience it. So, for example, when I see
the model shitting in close-up in your film Scheißkerl [1969],
rendered in extreme slow-motion, it strikes me as oddly beautiful
rather than repellent. Did you intend to aestheticize or romanticize
the action through slow-motion? P. 187

mi-nu-nat
I wanted long scenes because shitting is wonderful. In reality,
everything happened very quickly; all at once it went “brrrrrrrrrrr,”
fell down splashing, and was over. The action was too short, so
I used slow-motion in Scheißkerl to make the shitting visible. Art
makes the invisible visible. If you don’t see something in a film, it
doesn’t exist. One should also see the repulsive. P. 187

ritual like, transa, n ar fi putut sa o faca in viata reala,

Actionism is provocation and agitation, the representation of moral

double standards. p. 189

The avant-garde is not shocked by my films. Many of my films are

deeply human…. Those who are shocked I have
rightly shocked. I count on shocking them and make my actions
accordingly. P. 189

What really shocks is when the

artist confronts you with the facts. There ought to be plenty to show.
No one questions the State, even though the State doesn’t work. One
cannot change it, not even through revolution. As long as there is
private property, you can forget about ethics. 190
p. 190 OMFG DESPRE INCEST CA TABOO SI FUNCTIONAREA STATULUI

THE MOST FUCKING AMAZING But in the commune I made films that almost could compete with
Hollywood, such as Picasso and Van Gogh. I also filmed Emily,
Inferno, No cookies today (Kein Keks heute) and with the children I
made critical character portraits of Stalin and Hitler, among others.
Jesus was my last film. I could not finish my Andy Warhol film
because I had to go to prison. That was the enforced seven-year
break, because I was on State vacation. In jail, I developed a
screenplay for a “Freud” film. P. 193

I make a higher art, the art of life. I no longer

worry about painting or the visual arts. I began the practice of giving
life form. The art of the 21st century is the formation (Gestaltung)
of the future. P. 193

subversive body in performance art, koroleva

body art reveals the very problem of resistance to dominant mainstream discourses in post-industrial
society - in abstract

intelesul acestor practice nu sta in critica adusa societatii ci semnificatia sta in incercarile de a depasi
notiunea de subiectivitate individuala.

Deci body art ul critica paradigm corpului individual al capitalismului (tarziu) si discursurile post-
capitaliste.

Deci sa vedem ce e cu individual body in capitalism (late) si post-capitalism discourse

intend to demonstrate how the non-semantic nature of

body art defines its subversive character towards dominant mainstream discourses. P. 2

utilizeaza practice care dezvaluie limitele unui sine construit social si stimuleaza
intoarcerea catre experientele corporale collective associate cu moduri de existent pre-
simbolice. Materialitatea corpului ca state of being primordial => sa investigheze moduri
de comunicare non lingvistice bazate pe revelatia calitatilor fizice intr-un mod nemediat

iar noi avem avem fix asa ceva, ba chiar se bazeaza pe corporalitate in ultimul hal
avand in vedere faptul ca apeleaza si la functii ale corpului – sange, rahat n shit.
Sexualitate (sa vedem cum e cubseriva treaba asta) si chiar o unire ritualica ( ?) cu
natura

body art rooted in non-narrative, non-subjective provocative and critical artistic

expression. P. 2
dar noi nu avem capitol despre emergence a body art ului ca forma rooted… etc dar se
poate mentiona pe scurt cu trimiteri.

I argue that the individual self is an

illusionary intellectual construct built upon the structures of the language, itself an
artificial system. Being a result of socialization and modification of the unconscious
through the direct influence of the external world, the ego restricts the free flow of the
natural desires of the mind. The formation of the ego represents the shift of the human
mind from the original pre-symbolic order of being, characterized by the unity, continuity
and immediacy of experiences, to the alienation and discontinuity of the symbolic order.
P. 2-3

bun, dar eu o sa duc discutia pana la fragmentarea sinelui ca subiect individual in

pomo cu trimitere la Amelia jones ca sa introduc problematici gen narcissism,
castrare, feminism, familie

In chapter three, I describe the major tactics of deconstructing the individual body
as developed in ritualistic performances, sadomasochistic performances and
performances of endurance. Artists of different strains of body art adopted two major
methods of return to the collective body through the transgression of the singular body
and the creation of a collective body of erotic excitement. The roots of these forms of
body art can be found in the ancient Greek Dionysian mysteries and ritualistic theater of
a
sacrifice. Using theoretical approaches developed in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche,
Georges Bataille, Gilles Deleuze, I show how the orgy and sacrifice can serve as a
major
means of transgressing the singular body and lead to the formation of a collective body
of
original unity with the external world. p. 3

corpul colectiv Gilles Deleuze, Mikhail Bakhtin, Antonin Artaud and Georges

Bataille doar ca noi intram si in psihanaliza si Wilhelm reich

… The collective body is

characteristically opposed to the individual body and instead of alienation, shame and
secrecy, and fear of death of the individual body it performs extensive communication
with the external world, free flow of desires, shameless physicality, invulnerability and
lack of fear of death. P. 3

corp colectiv vs corp individual sa vedem cum functioneaza

deci lipsa limbajului si unei structure narrative si concentrarea functions, content and
physical qualities of the
body are the expressive material of body art practices… body art strives to demonstrate
the possibilities of a pure
unmediated expression, which reveals the original totality of being rooted in the physical
world.

mai zice ca prin practicile astea sadomasochiste si ritualistice s-au dezvoltat practice
prin care se critica canonul individualitatii.

Zice ca in most cases body artists perform solo avoiding artistic props in order to
emphasize the physical qualities of the body dar la noi e cazul la schwarzkogler si valie
export poate mai mult, in general e in comun facut. P. 4

Sau the artist’s body is pushed to the extremes of its

survival to demonstrate the ways to overcome the physical limits of the individual body
by transgressing its protective qualities and its resistance to pain sau participants and
additional artistic materials, the whole project turns into a celebration of
physical life and a demonstration of the orgiastic qualities of the body associated with
frenzied sexuality and excessive physical pleasure p. 4-5

to criticize the structures of reality and express their discontent with

mainstream beliefs p. 20

to explore the physical

possibilities and limits of their bodies, while trying to overcome conventional social
essentialisms.

Ce inseamna pentru ei limite ale corpului? Decat asta mai degraba sa depaseasca
conventii sociale si, in acelasi timp, sa depaseasca limite ale artei. Aici vine muehl cu
comuna, nitsch cu ritualismul, eventual valie export cu expanded cinema

artists aimed to criticize the omnipresent standard of materiality associated with

independent self-sufficient subjectivity, which was formed within the last three centuries.
The manipulations of their bodies were meant to reveal the limitations and artificiality of
existing understanding of identity and to propose alternative models of physical and
psychological existence. Ca in final asta fac p. 21

By becoming a speaking subject, the child overcomes the

“imaginary order” of his earlier experience and accedes to what Lacan called the
“symbolic order”—“that system of signifiers that constitutes the subject’s native
language.”41 p. 23

Lacan separates the pre-symbolic experience of a child

from the symbolic existence of a subject as a result of a fundamental difference: “where
the imaginary order had previously been characterized by sameness, unity, continuity,
and immediacy, the child’s entry into the symbolic order therefore introduces difference,
multiplicity, discontinuity and mediation.”43 p. 23
Understanding the body as the very
embodiment of a socially constructed identity—the ego, body artists appropriated
different methods of bodily violation as ways to demonstrate the negation of the former.
P. 27.

Si aici de mentionat ce zice Foucault despre corp.

to symbolize the deconstruction of the subjectivity. The

return to pre-symbolic order associated with the primordial unity with the outside world
was performed in sadomasochistic performances by opening the body surfaces and
letting
the internal content of the body merge with the external reality. The bleeding and
defecation in radical sadomasochistic works are the ways to demonstrate the openness
of
human body and its original state of exchange and communication with the external
world. Transgressing the surface of the body, artists aimed to demonstrate the
elimination of the artificial boundary between the subject and the world, defined by the
restricting mechanism of ego formation. P. 27

emphasized the
sexuality of the human body in order to reveal the original unconscious drives—eros
and
thanatos. P. 28

In most cases, body artists combined the radical eroticism of their performance
with violence and brutality in order to demonstrate the inseparability of the drive to
reproduction and the drive to death. Artists such as Schneeman and Nitsch created
provocative performances on the boundary of disgust and sexual excitement, aiming to
transgress the structures of the conscious based on binary oppositions and to perform
the
totality of primordial desire. In general, body art tactics of return to a pre-symbolic order
of existence can be reduced to three major directions:
1. Ritualistic performances nitsch nd muehl
2. Sadomasochistic performances schwarzkogler
3. Performances of endurance., p. 28

Neaprat sa ma uit la descrierea fiecarora pentru ca am indicia foarte interesante

The return to a pre-symbolic state in body art is associated with the notion of a
collective body in its original state of unity with the outside world. Involving their bodies
in shocking corporeal experiments, body artists searched for ways to overcome the
limits
of the individual body and involve all the participants of the action in the creation of
communal experiences.

… but also influences the

subjectivities of the spectators and their transformation within the community. P. 29
an intention to critique conventional
notions of subjectivity and transgress major social taboos surrounding sexuality and
death.- ritualistice. P. 30

creare text prin lower stratum si nu fata se poate aplica pe mai multe. P. 37

la masochistic discontent with its own being, chiar cu its own masculinity

pg. sadomasochism ca umilinta si critica asupra middle class p. 33

endurance – striving for overcoming subjectivity – interesant ca schwarzkogler allege sa fac asta singur.
P 44

castrarea cu other-related?

body artists aimed to deconstruct stereotypical

understanding of the physical limits of the body and create a certain type of
transcendental body balancing on the border of life and death. Exploring the possibilities
of their bodies, artists practicing performance of endurance were interested in the
transitional state of being between the discontinuity of life and continuity of death, where
all tensions of alienated subjective existence are released. P. 45

pushing body s limits – pot sa ma leg de respiratia rapida pana la lesin si voma care
arata tot o reintoarcere catre pre -symbolism.

humiliation and negation. Applying food, excreta, gross liquids on their bodies, Otto
Muehl, Paul McCarthy, and Karen Finley aim to critique the established bodily canon
represented by clean, protected body of the middle-class individual. Combining
aggressive humor with disturbing and shocking practices in their corporeal
performances,
these body artists create radical responses to the established corporeal canon and
transgress the omnipresent influence of adult subjectivity. P. 44

p. 53 erotism

The theoretical concepts described in this chapter propose a model of the body as
an alternative to the existing bodily model of the individual self. The Body without
Organs, the grotesque body and continuous body of death and eroticism are examples
of
a primal body, which existed before the formation of subjectivity. I find these concepts
relevant for the understanding and interpretation of the collective body created in body
art performances as a means to resist the discourse of the subjective self. Being a
model
in opposition to the singular body, the collective body can be described as a denial and
replacement of the major principles of subjective body. P. 53
Times of the Event On the Aesthetico-Political in West Germany and Austria
circa 1968
Deci analizeaza uitandu-se catre 4 directii

- Politizarea esteticului
- Estetizarea politicului
- Departarea de modelele moderniste
- Ascensiunea stangii noi

Incepe capitolul 3 cu Vienna walk si cu faptul ca a introdus schibari la nivelul structurii evenimentului. Pt
ca a fost prima actiune care a avut loc in public in fata unei audiente neinvitate. E clara tendinta de
orientare catre o audienta exogenous o data datprita dezinteresului public, o data climatul represiv.
Dublata de incrasing concern cu intrebari privind regularea spatiului colectiv. Spatiul pune mai multe
probleme. Brus did was not to disturb an abstract universal
public, but a historically fraught, overdetermined idea of what a public could or should
be.

Dincolo de structura evenimentului, actiunea lui displaced the horizon of actionist production from its
intial convern with problems derived from the medium of painting.

Deci