Nitsch Foundation

Hermann Nitsch uses the familiar imagery of the Last Supper to create a physical, existential and cosmic worldview, where art becomes ritual and life is experienced as a continuous cycle of death and renewal.

Meet Florentina Holzinger
Coming soon:
PFINGSTSPIEL
May 23, 2026
From Vienna to Schloss Prinzendorf

Thanks to our partners:


VERBUND
TECTO
Dorotheum
Redtenbacher Nikolaus
Max Stiegl
Kunsttrans
Dominika Li
Thomas Richter
Kramer & Kramer

Exhibition Opening I Hermann Nitsch -The Last Supper

In his exploration of the Last Supper, Hermann Nitsch did not refer to the Gospel of John, which Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting follows. He was primarily interested in the Eucharistic cultic and ritual practices because of their sensual intensity and the hermetic density of their symbolic meaning.

Chalices, monstrances, wine and water jugs, hosts, folded white cloths, gold and silver bowls, and above all, the ritual vestments, stoles, and chasubles exerted a powerful influence on him.

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Between 1976 and 1979, Nitsch worked on the drawing “The Last Supper,” which he created on a single sheet of paper. In 1983, this work was first published as a silkscreen print. In 2021, this work was revived on cloths sprinkled with bright colors, foreshadowing the resurrection of “the defeated hero”.

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The exhibition opening will take place on Thursday, 12 March 2026 at 19:00 at the Nitsch Foundation in Vienna.

art artist austrianartist contemporaryart aktionismus wieneraktionismus viennaactionism actionpainting modernart performance exhibition gesamtkunstwerk omt artvienna

Exhibition Opening I Kata Oelschlägel - Pacification

The Nitsch Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of Kata Oelschlägel’s new solo show „Pacification“, opening on November 6th, 2025

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In her artistic practice, Oelschlägel engages with the tools and media of Vienna Actionism, with the intention of carrying the movement forward. Fragments, lines, and materials emerge in place of radical gestures.

Oelschlägel is concerned with both deconstruction and reconciliation – with an aesthetic that allows ambiguity and dissolves established connotations. Clarity is not asserted but undermined. Instead of radical gestures, her works reveal fragments, lines, and materials – traces of actions that may be read more as tender invitations than confrontations.

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Central elements such as blood, the cut, and the human body are translated into sculptural processes. The action remains present, but no longer as immediate gesture – it becomes a material echo: in fabric, stone, canvas, and digital display.

In her exhibition, corporeality, ritual, and form encounter one another in a new visual language. Oelschlägel unfolds an aesthetic that seeks to move rather than to shock – beyond clarity, right within the in-between.

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Opening:

November 6th, 2025, 6 p.m.
Hegelgasse 5, Vienna

On view until January 31st, 2026

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Today, we celebrate the birthday of Hermann Nitsch (1938 - 2022), a visionary who dedicated his life to art. His entire work is a testament to one monumental creation: the Orgien Mysterien Theater. Nitsch’s philosophy was to transform life itself into an aesthetically heightened celebration, a true work of art.

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Through his actions, paintings, and music, he sought to create an immersive, sensory experience. His art is a „glorious, radiant, laughing occurrence of being“, a profound exploration of life and death, destruction and construction, with the ultimate goal of affirming life and its continuous cycle of renewal and resurrection. His legacy is an invitation to experience life in its most intense and uninhibited form.

Happy Birthday, Nitsch!

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To celebrate Nitsch’s life, two special events will be held:

📍August 29th, Nitsch Foundation, 18:30

Giuseppe Zevola will present his book „Nitsch in Bomarzo“ that, together with the film “Bei den Ungeheuern”, documents the genesis of some of Hermann Nitsch’s works in Italy.

📍August 30th, Nitsch Museum Mistelbach, 17:00

The Freundeskreis (Friends‘ Association) of the nitsch museum invites you to a joint evening celebrating Hermann Nitsch’s birthday.
The event will start with a guided tour through the exhibition „Mein Nitsch“ at 17:00. The film screening of „Der König des Weinviertels“ by Sammlung Werner Trenker is scheduled for 18:00, followed by a social gathering with music by Paasdorf Brass and a traditional Heurigen buffet .

Photo credit:

Photo 1: ©Daniel Feyerl
Photo 3: ©Erika Schmid

Day 6 of Hermann Nitsch’s monumental “6-Day Play” took place on June 9th, 2025, at Schloss Prinzendorf in Lower Austria. The day marked the end of the performance and was filled with emotions of joy and love from all participants.

„Love not understood as a commandment, but as a state, as a heightened state of existence, as a state of being. The mysticism of being spread across the entirety of life is love.“

- Hermann Nitsch

Credits:

Photo 1, 2, 3, 4 : ©Daniel Feyerl

Photo 5, 6, 7, 8, 9: ©Lorenz Seidler /

Day 5 of Hermann Nitsch’s monumental “6-Day Play” was performed on June 8th, 2025, at Schloss Prinzendorf in Lower Austria. Here are some of the highlights of the spectacle which was performed by more than 80 performers and 100 musicians, and attended by hundreds of visitors.

„The festival demands a consciousness that leads deep into the acceptance of our tragic reality. The world as a whole should be embraced with all its extremes, its possibilities for happiness, its horrors, and the cruelty of death“

- Hermann Nitsch

The score of day 5 included an Amfortas performance in the castle’s cellar, live music and various performances in the courtyard culminating into a big finale.

Credits:

Photo 1, 2, 8: ©Daniel Feyerl

Photo 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9: ©Lorenz Seidler /

Day 4 of Hermann Nitsch’s monumental “6-Day Play” was performed on June 7th, 2025, at Schloss Prinzendorf in Lower Austria.

Here are some of the highlights of the performance which was brought to life by more than 80 performers and 100 musicians, and attended by hundreds of visitors.

„The six-day play of the O.M. Theatre is intended to be the greatest and most important festival for humanity [...]. It is simultaneously a popular festival and a brought-to-consciousness mystery of existence. The festival of the O.M. Theatre has no other pretext than the mystical glorification of our being.“

- Hermann Nitsch

The score of day 4 included a ritual foot washing, table actions and body performances, a procession through the fields, and a string quartet playing under the stars.

Credits:

Photo 1, 3, 4: ©Lorenz Seidler /

Photo 2, 6: ©Daniel Feyerl

Photo 5, 7, 8, 9 ©Daniel Pucher / .mag