"Hermann Nitsch and Yang Shaobin at White Space Beijing"
2006-04-12 until 2006-06-11
Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin Beijing
Beijing, , DE Germany

Works by Hermann Nitsch and Yang Shaobin are shown at White Space Beijing through June 11, 2006. The Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch is considered the most important pioneer of Vienna Actionism, which initially made a name for itself with action painting influenced by tachism and abstract expressionism in the 1950s. Nitsch developed beginning in 1958 his concept of the Orgy Mystery Theater, a Gesamtkunstwerk that claims the attention of all the senses. A psychoanalytic dramaturgy attempts to effect a catharsis in the viewer by staging excessive actions.

After Hermann Nitsch was exhibited in China for the first time, Nitsch's part in the exhibition follows this idea. It shows with painting and 'Schüttbildern', video, photography and relics a comprehensive overview of Nitsch's work, at the focal point of which is the Orgy Mystery Theater.

Yang Shaobin was born in 1963 and now lives in Beijing. In his 2004 catalogue, he is included beside works by Francis Bacon and Arnulf Rainer, artists who influenced him in various ways, a photograph of a crucified ox, with an ripped open corpse and a person tied to him, taken at Hermann Nitsch's Six Day Play from 1998. With these illustrations, Yang pointed to a central issue in his work: the tension between individual violence and compassion with the human creature.

With the exhibition Hermann Nitsch/Yang Shaobin Alexander Ochs continues the exhibition series begun in 2003 in Shanghai, EurAsianDialogues. The series has included up until now the exhibitions Jörg Immendorff/ Fang Lijun; A.R. Penck / Lü Sheng Zhong (2004) und Franz Gertsch / Fang Lijun (2005); now offering an encounter between Nitsch and Yang Shaobin. 

The exhibition will be opened by the Austrian Ambassador to China, Dr. Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, the director of MuMOK-Museum für Moderne Kunst/Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Prof. Edelbert Köb and Fan Dian, the director of NAMoC, National Art Museum of China, Beijing.

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