Hermann Nitsch

Bayreuth Walküre e relitti 158. aktion

The exhibition offers a hitherto unseen dialogue between a wide selection of works from the malaktion “Walküre” and the relics of the last action, directed by Hermann Nitsch in Naples.

The first set of works on show in the Museum’s ground-floor rooms come from Nitsch’s pictorial action in the form of a scenic event at the concert performance of Richard Wagner’s The Valkyrie at the Bayreuth Festival in the summer of 2021.

“I wish to put on a painting action where the colours of the poured and smeared paint, spanning the whole spectrum of the rainbow, attempt to compete in a positive sense with the blazing colouration of Wagnerian music. The events of the actual act of painting are to be like music. Sounds turn into colours. The painter is stirred and aroused, vents himself in the painting process. He is the first actor. He feels the very substance of the paint, the fluidness, the slithery slim, the pulp of the thick paint,” Hermann Nitsch wrote on that occasion. “I have enthusiastically loved Wagner’s work. The gesamtkunstwerk was his priority. It is experienced through all the senses. He was always my teacher, and still is today.”

In a dialogue with the Schüttbilder (action paintings) from the Wagner festival 2021 are the relics and documents from the 158. aktion (2020) – the last one to be led by Hermann Nitsch. In this action, the Austrian master acknowledged the primary importance in terms of dynamism and intensity of the “Sinfonia Napoli” – an integral part of the event, performed by the Orchestra Scarlatti under the baton of Andrea Cusumano – through which, in September 2020, he wished to celebrate both Giuseppe Morra and the city of Naples on the occasion of the twelfth anniversary of his Neapolitan Museum.

October 22, 2022 — September 30, 2024

Museo Hermann Nitsch
Vico Lungo Pontecorvo, 29/d
80135 Napoli
Italia
www.museonitsch.org