My Body is the Event

From March through August 2015,  mumok is presenting was collection focus on Vienna Actionism in the context of international developments in performance-based art. Whereas previous mumok shows of Vienna Actionism always concentrated on the pictorial artifacts of the movement’s main protagonists, the focus of this exhibition was on the performative aspects of their creative work. Actions by Günter Brus, Hermann Nitsch, Otto Muehl, and Rudolf Schwarzkogler were contrasted with works by significant international practitioners of performance art, with works by Marina Abramovic, Joseph Beuys, Chris Burden, Jon Grigorescu, Shigeko Kubota, Paul McCarthy, Ana Mendieta, Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono, Gina Pane, Neša Paripovic, Ewa Partum, Carolee Schneemann, and VALIE EXPORT.

The exhibition was divided into several thematic sections that look ed at the questions that generally shaped a broad range of action art in the 1960s and 1970s. A comparison with parallel international movements showed that the Viennese artists were not only right up with the times but in many ways developed pioneering positions.

Curated by Eva Badura-Triska with Marie-Therese Hochwartner