Corpo-Sacro-Mito

Hermann Nitsch at the Museo Diocesano di Bescia

The exhibition “Body-Sacred-Myth” at the Museo Docesano di Brescia is dedicated to Hermann Nitsch, pioneer of Body Art, founder of Viennese Actionism in Austria and still today considered one of the most complex and provocative contemporary artists: performance artist, painter, dramatist, philosopher, stage designer and composer, his synthesis of the arts, called the Orgies Mysteries Theatre, manages to embrace all the languages of his artistic research and intensely engages the senses through a contemporary interpretation of the concepts of tragedy, myth and the sacred.

The importance of this exhibition, the first ever in the city of Brescia, is due to a body of works from an important private collection, created between 1975 and 2017: a precious anthological exhibition that guides the visitor by the hand, through four rooms and the path in the loggia, as in a journey ‘in stages’ destined to descend into the deepest and most genuine layers of Nitsch’s research.

The viewer will thus be guided in front of his canvases made with skilfully orchestrated colours, as is the case in the first room, to then enter into the heart of the actions with a theatrical and sacred character, where the poured blood is the main painted material that makes up the relics, works that testify to his performances. In the third room, the exhibition focuses on the image of the cross and the meaning of the sacrifice of the body, while in the last room, colour stands out in the liturgical elements and instruments used in the actions. Finally, in the loggia, Nitsch’s pictorial mastery is expressed in monumental dimensions, as shown by three large works recounting biblical and christian episodes.

Curator Ilaria Bignoti and Mons. Raffaele Maiolini on the exhibition (italian only) => videolink

The exhibition “Hermann Nitsch: Body-Sacred-Myth” will be open from Thursday, 11 September 2025 at 18:00h until Sunday, 30 November 2025.