#art, Los accionistas vieneses – The Viennese Actionists

Venga, lo primero que te diré, para que te enteres y no te vayas a ilusionar mucho, es que ya este movimiento artístico no existe. Que se sepa nadie le ha seguido los pasos a Günter Brus, Otto Mühl, Hermann Nitsch, y Rudolf Schwarzkogler, los padres del movimiento. Los accionistas vieneses surgieron a fines de la década de los años 60 y principios de los 70. Estos, mas o menos, estaban en la misma onda que Fluxus, Action Painting, Happenings y Body Art. Posiblemente ascendieron de los antiguos dadaístas también, quién sabe… Los accionistas trabajaban independiente de los demás movimientos artísticos. Rechazaban el arte estático y el tradicionalismo y lo que buscaban era realizar acciones delante de la gente, preferiblemente mucha gente y en entornos controlados… El «arte» que generaban era grotesco, violento e ilegal. Sacrificaban animales, conducían orgías, actos sexuales sangrientos, mutilaciones genitales y violaciones. Todo para desafiar la moral del pueblo. Muchos de los accionistas cumplieron condenas por sus transgresiones y delitos. Y por supuesto no podían ser «artistas» si no cometían actos blasfemos, como todos los supuestos ateos que enseguida les gusta hacer algo «religioso»… Para mi, igual que los del Fluxus, los accionistas no eran artistas, quizá estaban desequilibrados, o se escaparon del manicomio, y, por supuesto, aparentemente no eran más que degenerados y delincuentes sin talento alguno.

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Alright, the first thing I’ll tell you, so you know and don’t get too excited, is that this artistic movement no longer exists. As far as anyone knows, no one has followed in the footsteps of Günter Brus, Otto Mühl, Hermann Nitsch, and Rudolf Schwarzkogler, the fathers of the movement. The Viennese Actionists emerged at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s. They were more or less in the same vein as Fluxus, Action Painting, Happenings, and Body Art. They possibly descended from the old Dadaists as well, who knows… The Actionists worked independently from other artistic movements. They rejected static art and traditionalism, and what they sought was to perform actions in front of people, preferably a lot of people and in controlled environments… The «art» they produced was grotesque, violent, and illegal. They sacrificed animals, conducted orgies, engaged in bloody sexual acts, did genital mutilations, and committed rapes. All done, according to their mantras, to challenge the moral standards of society. Many of the Actionists served sentences for their transgressions and crimes. And of course, they couldn’t be «artists» if they didn’t commit blasphemous acts as well. We already know how these «aetheists» love to include something religious in their repertoire… To me, like those of Fluxus, the Actionists were not artists. Perhaps they were mentally unbalanced people, or completely insane and, of course, mere talentless criminals.

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