Hermann Nitsch atlas. Texts/writings/documents…

This publication intends to explore the altas of Nitsch’s “public aktionen” insofar as they are recorded – scored, directed, written down, photographed, published and reported. To that end, it will focus on four categories representing Nitsch’s constellation: pre-documents, documents, post-documents, relics. The preparative phase (pre-documents) consists of research (theoretical texts, manifestos, drawings) and announcements, posters; the pragmatic phase (documents) of instructional and operative documents (physical scores, pamphlets or flyers used directly in performance) and the iconographic information, documentation (photographs, recordings). The post-documents are the action-books, artist’s publications, videos, catalogues and, in isolated cases, press conferences, print media and police reports.

This archiving methods attempts to explore Nitsch’s off-media and performative practice, both in terms of how the performance is organized, and by what means the organization is effected by the original and primary scripts Nitsch prepared for his own actions (performed or unperformed), as well as in his own theoretical texts on the “o.m. theater”.