BODYBUILDING
Production: Austria, 1965
Director: Ernst Schmidt Jr.
Category: Performance Art
A 9-minute film-capture of one of the seminal 1960s performance-art pieces by Vienna Aktionist Otto Muehl. Using both colour and sound, Schmidt adds solarization effects to match the intensity of Muehl’s Materialaktion, which included mummification by bandages and daubing with paint. Director Schmidt made a series of films with Muehl in 1965/66; the others were Nabelschnur – Darstellung Einer Geburt (“Umbilical Cord – Portrayal Of A Birth”), 1964 Silberarsch (“Siver-Arse”), Aktion Mit Einem Toten Hasen (“Aktion With A Dead Hare”), Bimmel Bammel, Gehirnoperation (“Brain Surgery”, also filmed by Günter Brus), and Rumpsti Pumpsti, also known as Schiess-Scheibe (“Shit-Shoot”). Schmidt would also film the significant Vienna Aktion event Kunst Und Revolution (“Art And Revolution”) in 1968. Recommended reading: The Art Of Destruction by Stephen Barber.
Posted by Captain Nightshade
