Hermann Nitsch

A portrait of the Austrian avant-garde artist Otto Mühl/Muehl (1925-2013), whose work combined sex, violence, gastronomy and bodily effluence with unbridled abandon.

Experimental film depicting military service in a grotesque way.

A short film by Maria Lassnig, shot in 1970.

"Frauenmuskel is a jarring and sexually explicit film. Yet, the film holds an important dual sense of mystery that haunts long and after the film is over. Filmed during the Hermann Nitsch action of 1998, the film covers a stroll through the countryside as well as nightly impressions of the stars and clouds above Hermann Nitsch, himself" -Christopher May

Jonas Mekas assembles 160 portraits, appearances, and fleeting sketches of underground and independent filmmakers captured between 1955 and 1996. Fast-paced and archival in spirit, the film celebrates the avant-garde as its own “nation of cinema,” a vital community existing outside the dominance of commercial film.

“Before the eyes of all, at least of those present, the naked and direct exhibitions of the body take place with all its extensions; but the naked eye of the spectators who circle is promptly doubled by the many mechanical or electronic eyes of the photographic equipment and of the 'cameras' which, with their clicks and their tenacious buzzing, form the background” Renato Barilli

Nitsch's work, which can be considered both ritualistic and existential, first drew attention in the early 1960s when he exhibited a skinned and mutilated lamb. The lamb was crucified against a white fabric-covered wall, with the entrails removed and displayed below a white table, splashed with blood and hot water. Currently his work is often discussed in the context of our cultures fixation with violence seen on the news, movie screens, and in popular video games. Correlations have also been drawn to many instances of the intersection of violence and culture. These performance works, which have become known as "actions" have become more and more elaborate over the years.