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SELBSTVERSTRICKUNG by Günter Brus
T
he Office Gallery presented the Austrian
actionist Günter Brus to a Cyprus audience
for the first time, in an exhibition that ran 2-30
June 2014.
His featured work, the action
SELBSTVER-
STRICKUNG
(1965 - 2013), is presented in
thirteen black-and-white photographs, captured
by the lens of Ludwig Hoffenreich in the Peri-
net basement in Vienna in 1965. The project
remained buried in the artist’s personal archive
until October 2010.
Brus writes about the action: “A two-metre-
high picture frame was stored away in the
legendary Perinetkeller. I stringed this frame
with molina and slit it open. My purpose was
to emerge as a living image. I crawled into the
frame assuming a foetal position. During the
Action I entered an ecstatic rage, and, as a re-
sult, I shredded the canvas and got tangled up in
it. The ‘living image’ was destroyed at the end
of that exalted Action, and I poured white and
black paint over myself.”
The Austrian performance artist and poet
was born in 1938 in Ardning, Styria. He was
a founding member of the Viennese Action-
ism along with Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch
and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. In 1966, Brus and
Muehl founded the Institut für Kunst Direkte.
During his actionist period, Günter Brus devel-
oped a controversial body- and self-analysis,
which challenged traditional painting practices
and the role of the artist in the society. In Brus’
actions, his body was at the centre of a clearly
defined space and by making use of it, he ex-
plored the limits of human tolerance and physi-
cal endurance.
Looking back at Günter Brus’ career, there is
a clear transition from figurative painting to
painting as a happening, and the use of the
body, not only as a medium or surface, but also
as material for painting. In this way, his action
SELBSTVERSTRICKUNG
illustrates the cru-
cial struggle of the artist with his canvas.
By Chara Stephanou
