Heinz Cibulka

[Viennese Actionism] Mein korper bei aktionen von Nitsch und Schwarzkogler 1965-1975

Naples: Edizioni Morra, 1977. Text in German and Italian. In photo illustrated wrappers. [162] pp., 140 of which are photographic. 8 x 10 in. Very good with small chip and bumping along spine. Item #6276

Vile images of young nude men smeared with bodily fluids, organs, and blood in scenes of sexual subjection and bodily dessecration. Appearing as in-progress torture carried out with crude surgical tools, the dismemberments appear clinical, institutionally executed, and are highly unnverving. Other photographs show assistants staging the scene and crowds looking on, a gesture towards the complicity of all members of a society for its violence.

Heinz Cibulka was part of the Viennese Actionism movement and this photobook documents several actions from 1965-1975, including one performed by Rudolf Schwarzkogler. A precursor to performance art, the actions intended to shock, disturb, and transgress polite bourgeois morals and force Austrian society to reckon with the atrocities committed under the Nazi regime.

Price: $500.00