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.
