Hermann Nitsch

Scores of the 6-day-play

We are thrilled to announce the 11th solo exhibition with HERMANN NITSCH at Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman in Innsbruck, featuring the title-giving piece the scores of the 6-day-play.

“the 6-day-play of the orgies mysteries theater is a work in progress. everyhting i’ve ever done, my action painting, all my performances, my music were preliminary stages for the never to be completed work. in 1998 i succeeded in realizing a possible version of the 6-day-play. in 2021 i want to perform another version of the 6-day-play in prinzendorf. the music, which expands into organ sound and music of the spheres, is becoming more and more essential.” – Hermann Nitsch

In July 2022 Nitsch will finally be able to present his magnum opus, the 6-day-play, for a second time. Held in its first edition in Prinzendorf in 1998 it was planned to be realised again for the year 2021. But postponed by the artist, to direct all his attention towards his painting action in Bayreuth. As another milestone in his career, the universal artist Hermann Nitsch was invited by the Bayreuth Festival to provide scenic accompaniment to a concert version of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre in summer 2021. Nitsch has conceived an extensive painting action for each of the three acts.

“wagner has fascinated me all my life. because of this wonderful, indulgent, sensual music that makes the sound blossom beyond the melody. art was already connected to cult, religion and the gesamtkunstwerk in its first forms of performance. and wagner is the uncoverer of the gesamtkunstwerk. he made it shine.” – Hermann Nitsch

The exhibition in Innsbruck lays focus on art-historical works from Nitsch’s oeuvre. Excerpts of the artist’s second composition for the 6-day-play, will be accompanied with a relic from the artist’s first 6-day-play in 1998. Artifcats and documents resulting from Schütt- and Malaktionen, that were performed within the last two decades in public spaces like the Burgtheater in Vienna or nitschmuseum Mistelbach, or more private sets, like the 70th Malaktion, held in our very own gallery spaces in Vienna in 2014, will round up the show. That is concluded with painting’s from the artist’s latest action, held on stage in Bayreuth in summer 2021.