HN Hermann Nitsch (2009)

As a survivor of WWII, which will mark his life and work permanently, Hermann Nitsch is considered one of the most important contemporary artists in the world while his work continues to generate conflicting reactions for the use of blood and slaughtered animals. Born in Austria in 1938, he had to flee catholic persecutions. He is considered the founder of “Viennese Actionism” and is famous worldwide for his “Theatre of the Orgies and Mysteries”. Painter, writer, composer and performer, Nitsch is a “total” artist, unique and controversial; his work appears in some of the most important museums in the world including the Metropolitan and the MoMA in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and is featured in two museums entitled exclusively to him, within the museum centre Mistelbach and the Museo Hermann Nitsch in Naples. Thanks to Nitsch’s private and unpublished archives the documentary (filmed during more then one year, between Austria, Italy and Romania) is an intimate and unique portrait of his life, work and personality. An extraordinary journey that uncovers who Hermann Nitsch really is, not only as an artist, but most of all as a human being.