Sound Portraits Radio {EP32} Hermann Nitsch

HERMANN NITSCH

EPISODE 32

Hermann Nitsch was born in Vienna in 1938. From 1953 to 1959 he studied at Vienna’s graphic arts school, the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt. In the late 1950s he began working on his Orgies Mysteries Theatre, which is dedicated to fathoming the human psyche. This produced performative, controversial
Actions, some involving blood, meat and faecal matter, which led to three jail sentences. Nitsch was one of the founders of Viennese Actionism. After confrontations with the authorities he moved to Germany. From 1971 to 1989 he
was a professor at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. Nitsch exhibited at documenta 5 in 1972 and documenta 7 in 1982. In 1998 he realised his 6 Day Play, a gesamtkunstwerk as a metaphor for life. The Hermann Nitsch Museum opened in Mistelbach, Germany, in 2007. Nitsch now lives and works in Austria.

This episode was broadcast live on Cashmere Radio and is hosted by Doron Sadja.

Sound Portraits is a series of lectures/listening sessions, curated by Doron Sadja, focusing on the work of iconic composers who have paved the way for contemporary electronic music. Started in 2015 as a live event at Spektrum in Berlin, the series quickly grew and exists now as both a live lecture series and a radio show on Cashmere Radio. After an introduction of each artist’s life and work, we listen to a selection of excerpts and complete works from the artist’s repertoire. Besides providing an opportunity to introduce these seminal artists to a new audience, the Sound Portraits series also offers an open forum to engage in group listening in a quiet atmosphere.

Doron Sadja is an American artist, composer, and curator whose work explores modes of perception and the experience of sound, light, and space. Find out more at www.doron.sadja.com

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SOUND PORTRAITS HERMANN NITSCH

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