Press Conference November 28th, 2013 at 3.00 p.m. at Hotel Vesuvio
Concert, November 29th, 2013 at 7.30 p.m. Teatrino di Corte Palazzo Reale
Opening of the Exhibition, November 30th, 2013 at 6.00 p.m.
The Management of the Fondazione Morra, responsible for the exhibition of Attersee and Nitsch at Castel dell 'Ovo announced that on the following days the exhibition will be closed to the public:
December 31st, 2013 -January 1st and 6th, 2014
The exhibition Attersee -Nitsch "A Duet for Naples," which will be hosted at Castel dell 'Ovo from December 1st, 2013 to March 1st, 2014, is organized and promoted by the Fondazione Morra and by the Councillorship of Culture and Tourism of Naples. The curator is Achille Bonito Oliva. The exhibition is also sponsored by the Cityof Naples and by the Councillorship of Culture of the City of Vienna and it is realized with the participation of Nino Di Natale and Stefan Sares. The protagonists of the event, which will surely have an international importance, will be the two Austrian artists that have always been tied to Naples.
Christian Ludwig, also knownas Attersee, has always attended and admired Naples. On the other hand, Hermann Nitsch, found in Naples the best place for his museum. They both pay homage tothe city.
The exhibition is the resultof a cultural partnership between two artists and Austrian art historians, communicating with each other through a complementary languages (painting and its trespassing) with a noticeable difference iconography. Hermann Nitsch, member of the famous Viennese Actionism, operates through performative rituals that involve actions and groupscenes, whose result is to aim and enhance the senses through the body and thepainting. Attersee works within the pictorial frame that crosses over to other languages, as for instance the language of music. Theatre and music become scopes media through which the two artists affirm the vitality of a renewed energy of life. Nitsch works on a ritual open to the total art; while Atterseedevelops and imagery that combines a Nordic spirit and a pop irony. These ways of understanding art can be appreciated in the 60 works on display at Casteldell'Ovo. One of the most important event of the exhibition will be the concert organized by the Superintendence for Architectural Heritage, Landscape, Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage of Naples. The concert will take place at Teatrino di Corte - Palazzo Reale on November, 29th at 7.30p.m.
Biographical notes on the artists
Christian Ludwig Attersee was born in 1940 in Bratislava (Slovakia) and movedto Austria in 1944; today he lives in Vienna and Semmering in Lower Austria. Attersee spent his youth in Aschach near Linz and in Attersee, Upper Austria; he was one of the great sailing sportsmen of Austria. He made his name not only as an artist in the fine and visual arts, but also as a musician, writer, object maker, designer, set designer and film maker. Attersee is noted first and foremost as one of the leading exponents of objective painting in Europeduring the last 40 years; he is a lone wolf in nearly all fields of the visual arts. First exhibitions starting in the mid-sixties bring success, also the friendship and collaboration with artists like Günter Brus, Gotthard Graubner, Jörg Immendorff, Markus Lüpertz, Hermann Nitsch, Walter Pichler, Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm, Oswald Wiener et al. Ever since Attersee's first objective inventions (1964-66) in the sphere of eroticism and everyday he has been appraised as an independent influence alongside other artists in European popart. Attersee is the great lone wolf of Austrian art of the sixties, counterpole to Viennese actionism. In the second half of the seventies, Attersee was the founding figure of "New Austrian Painting". In 1984 Attersee represents Austria with extraordinary success at the Biennale of Venezia. 1990 - 2009, professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (for painting, animation film and tapestry). In spring 2002, a comprehensive retrospective of Attersee's work is presented in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. In 2005 a major Attersee exhibition including works of the last 5 years is shown in the Vienna BA-CA Kunstforum; this is taken over in an augmented form in summer 2006 by the Würth Collection, Künzelsau. In spring 2005 the ballet "Petrushka" by Igor Stravinsky is performed in a setby Attersee; in May 2006 the ballet "Amadé" at the Belgrade Madlenianum. In autumn 2006 for six weeks, the Viennese Ringturm tower is wrapped in a painted Don Giovanni composition by Attersee. 2007: decorationsfor the 1st Liederball of the Vienna Men's Choral Society in the Kursalon Vienna. In November the artist finishes the interior mosaic "ReichtumErde" (Earth's Riches) in the Geological Federal Institute in Vienna. In May 1998 he is awarded the Grand Austrian State Prize 1997 for art. In summer 2004 he receives the Lovis Corinth Prize of the Künstlergilde Esslingen (Germany). In September 2005 he is awarded theAustrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art 1st Class.
Hermann Nitsch was born on August 29th, 1938 in Vienna. He is the crucial founder of Viennese Actionism and is regarded as one of the most versatile contemporary artists: action performer, painter, composer (symphonies, organ concerts), and set designer. His synthesis of the arts, the Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries, encompasses the broad spectrum of his art bycalling on all five senses - the tragic leads us to becoming involved with flesh, blood and intestines. Just before completing his training at the GraphischeLehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna with a diploma (1953-1958), Nitsch takes a position as a commercial artist at the city's technical museum in 1957. Privately Nitsch focuses his artistic interest initially on Expressionism, which he links to mostly religious figurative scenes. Beginning in 1960, following a period in which Nitsch had turned more towards literature, he returned to painting, creating works in the Arte Informel style. It is in this year that the first painting actions take place, and already they are seeking to realize the idea of the Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries. Revolving around the intensive sensory experience of various substances and fluids, the seactions become increasingly provocative in the coming years. Following screaming and noise action performances, conceived as abreaction plays, Nitsch undertakes the dismemberment of lambs, which lead to further actions involving flesh. And the Theatre proves a resounding success in the US and Germany at the endof the 1960s, Nitsch performs numerous actions throughout the 1970s in cities across Europe and North America. In 1971 Nitsch is able to acquire Prinzendorf Castle in Lower Austria from the Catholic Church, a purchase that allows him to now also realize his musical ideas for his theatre in large-scale action performances. Noise orchestras, scream choirs and electronically amplified instruments all play a part. Nitsch interprets life as passion, the painting process as a condensed form of life and thus as the very incarnation of passion. Through the painter smock he wears while working, subsequently positioned centrally in the painting, the artist remains present and animates the viewer to identify with the painting process and accompany him into the painting. The high points of Hermann Nitsch's projects are the "three day play"of 1984 in Prinzendorf or the cycle of pour paintings he creates in 1987at the Vienna Secession. The ideal of the "six day play" is performed in 1998. Since the 1990s Nitsch's art is increasingly honoured in a series of exhibitions,which are frequently accompanied by performance actions by the artist. In a changed political and social climate, Nitsch can now establish himself as a universally recognized creative artist. Hermann Nitsch lives and works at PrinzendorfCastle on the Zaya River, Lower Austria, as well as in Asolo (Italy). His works are exhibited in the two Nitsch Museums in Mistelbach (Austria) and in Naplesas well as in the Nitsch Foundation in Vienna and in prestigious international museums and galleries.