nitsch und... die Religion

“I wanted to become a church painter,” Hermann Nitsch once said about himself. And although he did not become a church painter, the sacred formed the innermost core of his world‑famous total artwork, the Orgies Mysteries Theatre. The artist understood religious rituals from all cultures as sensual, symbolically condensed forms that lead into the depths of human existence. Chalices, crosses, monstrances, and liturgical colors are for him not mere quotations, but carriers of existential experience.

Throughout his life, Hermann Nitsch engaged deeply with religion without belonging to any denomination. Despite existing conflicts, even the highest representatives of the Catholic Church acknowledged and honored the artist’s work and creative output.

In conversation with cathedral priest Toni Faber and curator Julia Moebus‑Puck, Michael Fleischhacker explores not only Hermann Nitsch’s connections to religion, but also the question of how art and religion influence one another.