Otto Muehl's Actionist Performance at Nantes Beaux-Arts

In March 2001, the École des Beaux-Arts de Nantes hosted a week-long seminar with Otto Muehl, co-founder of Viennese Actionism alongside Hermann Nitsch in 1963. Invited by director Robert Fleck, Muehl performed an 'Action matérielle' on March 28, covering two young women and a volunteer with white and green clay, ketchup, blackcurrant syrup, and pigments, directing them to mimic a death struggle. The performance, met with general hilarity, recalled the scandalous actions that once provoked criminal charges in Vienna. Muehl had faced censorship, exile, and a seven-year prison sentence after his commune was dismantled in 1991. His films and photographs had recently been exhibited at the Louvre in Régis Michel's exhibition 'Posséder et Détruire,' alongside works by Greuze and Poussin, marking a shift in status for Actionist imagery. Muehl, then 76, described Actionism as 'a line of life' and retained his wit and humor.