Thrilling action and radical nudity: Florentina Holzinger reinterpreted the Orgien Mysterien Theater at Nitsch’s castle
Performance artist Florentina Holzinger reinterprets Hermann Nitsch’s Orgien Mysterien Theater in a feminist, action-packed contemporary context.
Towards the end, at around 10.30 pm, an extraordinary aerial spectacle unfolded, leaving one unsure whether the heavens or the gates of hell were about to open. After seven hours of Orgien Mysterien Theater in a radical reinterpretation by the Viennese performance artist Florentina Holzinger, she and her twelve fellow performers hung from a board suspended in the air, with hooks embedded in the flesh of their backs and above their knees. The performance re-enacted Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting ‘The Last Supper’, though Holzinger was not positioned as Jesus in the centre, but as Matthew on the edge.
What began calmly and with great concentration escalated into a wild frenzy; the performers defied the pain with smiles, swinging wildly through the air, whilst church bells rang out and firecrackers enveloped everything in smoke and noise. What a finale!
From the Biennale to the “Pfingstspiel”
At the invitation of the Nitsch Foundation and the Wiener Festwochen, Holzinger interrupted her “Seaworld Venice” at the Venice Biennale to stage her “Pfingstspiel” at two venues. With a rehearsal period of just a few days, Holzinger once again put together a mega-show, which, however, was only on view once.
