What:
THE ORGIES MYSTERIES THEATER “the 6-day-play”, 2nd version, performance of the 3rd day “Day of Dionysus”
When:
Pentecost Sunday, 28 May 2023, sunrise
Where:
Atelier Hermann Nitsch, Schloss Prinzendorf and surroundings, Austria
Tickets:
€ 350 incl. food & beverages (limited availability; advanced purchase required)
Website:
www.nitsch-foundation.com/en/6-day-play
The Nitsch Foundation is honored to present a special performance of “Day of Dionysus,” the third day of late artist Hermann Nitsch’s (1938-2022) monumental six-day action work. The performance will take place on Pentecost Sunday, 28 May 2023, at the artist’s home and studio, Schloss Prinzendorf, and its surroundings in Lower Austria.
In July 2022, the first two days of the second version of the six-day play were performed, fulfilling Hermann Nitsch’s last wish. Over 60 actors, two orchestras with more than 100 musicians, and Rita Nitsch, with the support of Andrea Cusumano, Leonhard Kopp, Frank Gassner, and Josef Smutny, were involved in making it happen.
Hermann Nitsch was a leading figure of Viennese Actionism, a radical art movement that emerged in the 1960s and challenged conventional aesthetics with provocative performances involving violence, blood and nudity. He created the Orgies Mysteries Theater, a synaesthetic theater that stimulates all five senses and transcends normativity. He composed music for his actions as well as paintings, drawings and installations.
Drawing inspiration from Richard Wagner and Alexander Scriabin, Nitsch began to conceive of his magnum opus, the six-day-play in 1957. In many ways the culmination of Nitsch’s artistic vision, the play consists of six days of continuous actions structured around different themes: Day of Creation (Genesis), Day of Love (Song of Songs), Day of Dionysus (Scherzo), Day of Resurrection (Requiem), Day of Ascension (Gloria) and Day of Pentecost (Hallelujah). The first version of the six-day-play was performed in 1998 at Prinzendorf with more than 100 participants. Nitsch envisioned and scripted a second version, and before he passed away in 2022, left instructions and specifications for it to be performed over the course of several years. The first and second day were performed in July 2022; the third day will be performed on Pentecost Sunday, May 28, 2023; and subsequent days will be presented in 2024 and beyond.
The third day invokes the spirit of Dionysus, the god of ecstasy, destruction and rebirth, exploring the themes of excess, ruin and resurrection through ritualistic acts involving blood, animal entrails and nudity. As Nitsch poignantly explained,
“the third day addresses the myth of the god dionysus, the archetype of dionysus and the phrase DIONYSUS AGAINST THE CRUCIFIED. the demythologized phenomenon of the dionysian is recognized as an issue related to the dynamics of life. dionysus is the god, the principle of ecstatic becoming but also the principle of destruction. shiva and vishnu all in one. dionysus is the god of the world’s ruin and rebirth, the resurrection of flesh. he is the crucified, torn and resurrected. the ruins and rebirths of worlds pulsate through his flesh. the never-ending, recurring big bang has its source in the vitality of his body. all suppressed unlived life should be turned outward. we want to invoke the abysses of the nature found in us, that determine us, by awakening in excess.”
Challenging normative expectations, Nitsch’s actions invite participants to experience a cathartic transformation through sensory immersion. The performances will all take place Nitsch’s castle in Prinzendorf, activating its various rooms and surrounding landscape of the Lower Austrian Weinviertel. Tickets are available via the Foundation.
About Hermann Nitsch
Hermann Nitsch (29 August 1938 – 18 April 2022) was an Austrian artist best known for his interdisciplinary practice encompassing performance, painting, musical composition, and beyond. After studying at the Vienna’s Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in the 1950s, Nitsch became a pioneer of the city’s avant-garde scene in the 1960s and 1970s, staging radical and controversial performances as part of the Viennese Actionism movement. The artist’s performances and paintings incorporated blood, flesh, and other materials, a kind of religious practice in its own right. He conceived his famed Orgies Mysteries Theater in the 1950s, and the expansive, sensorial performance has since been realized as the 6-Day-Play.
About the Nitsch Foundation
The Nitsch Foundation was founded in 2009 to support and promote the position of the artist Hermann Nitsch. Since the artist’s passing in April 2022 the Foundation administers his work and legacy: THE ORGIES MYSTERIES THEATER. All of the Foundation’s activities are undertaken in close cooperation with Rita Nitsch. Among the key tasks serving this goal are raising awareness for the intellectual superstructure to his work, the publishing of books and editions, the organizing of exhibitions and lecture series, the performing of archival and documentation tasks, as well as the development of the catalogue raisonné. The ongoing and cooperative pursuit of these tasks is the principle guiding the activities of the Nitsch Foundation.
Press Contacts
Gudrun Marecek
marecek@nitsch-foundation.com | M +43 676 393 69 86
(Europe)
Rebecca Taylor
therealrebeccataylor@gmail.com | M +1 949 212 6186
(U.S.)
Download presskit with press images
Hermann Nitsch is a member of the copyright collecting agency Bildrecht GmbH.
All film and photo shootings must be arranged and approved in advance. Because the shootings are supervised by the Press Department of the Foundation, we kindly request appropriate notice for commercial shootings and press work not related to any urgent reporting needs.
e: office@nitsch-foundation.com
t: +43 1 513 55 30
