Materialaktion Nr. 19 (Bodybuilding), Perinetkeller, Perinetgasse 1, 1200 Wien, 1965

About the Work

The artist and commune-founder Otto Muehl was one of the best-known and controversial personalities in Austria. As one of the main proponents of Viennese Actionism, he carried out during the 1960s actions and performances which were concentrated on the human body. The aim was to cast out the hidden mechanisms and imprinted characteristics of bourgeois society. As the opposite side of the coin, however, this liberation from conservative moral strictures in his commune during the 1970s opened wide the door to illicit sexual activities with minors and to instances of rape, for which he was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in 1991. Despite all these tragic elements, the circumstances of his life were also a continuation of the connection between art and life which was repeatedly advocated by modernism.