Sunday 3 January 2010

Gunter Brus




I remember seeing this at the Tate Modern in London a couple of years ago. At first it shocked me, What the HELL is this man doing?! After a little while I realised how absolutely mind blowing it is, it’s ridiculous how a bit of art can reach deep inside you and touch something you aren’t even aware of, it was europhic.

I was fixated on this video and watched it over three times, it really compelled me to see something that was so thought to be incredibly terrifying being made into something really beautiful.

Taken from Wikipedia.
Günter Brus (born September 27, 1938, Ardning, Styria) is an Austrian painter, performance artist, graphic artist and writer.



He was the co-founder in 1964 of Wiener Aktionismus (Viennese Actionism) together with Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. His aggressively presented actionism intentionally disregarded conventions and taboos. Sentenced to 6 months in prison after the "Kunst und Revolution" event at the University of Vienna in 1968, he fled to Berlin with his family and returned to Austria in 1976. Brus urinated into a glass then proceeded to cover his body in his own excrement, and ended the piece by drinking his own urine. During the performance Brus also sang the Austrian national Anthem while masturbating. Bruce ended the piece by vomiting and his arrest. Through this piece and other performance works Brus hoped to reveal the still fascist essence of the nation. Brus also was editor of the "Schastrommel" (author's edition) from 1969 on. In his "Bild-Dichtungen" he achieves a synthesis between poetry and painting.



So wrong that he is so right.

2 comments:

ScarecrowInTheGarden said...

Since 2008, I've thought of this often and I just did a google search of "Tate Modern, self mutilation and corkscrew" and I'm again reunited...
Thanks.
Question: We may have visited the gallery at the same time and there was a promotional poster for an artist gallery and I'm really trying to find out who it was. The painting on the poster had a dismal, rusty and decayed colour scheme of a scary clown. Does this sound familiar? I really want to find out who it was. Any help would be amazing. Thanks!

Stephanie said...

Hi!
Sorry was just re reading some posts and just saw this.
It doesn't sound familiar I'm afraid as it was so long ago.
Gunter is absolutely amazing though right? Such a sinister but inspirational man.
Sorry I couldn't help you.
x

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