MISTELBACH, AUSTRIA.- The MZM Museumszentrum Mistelbach recently opened. The first phase of the facility’s opening presents the Hermann Nitsch Museum, the largest monographic museum in Austria. The premiere show presents a comprehensive overview of the work of Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch in an exhibition space measuring 2,600 square meters with a gallery complex having a total length of 61 meters.

“My work should be a school of life, of perception and feeling.”

This fundamental belief has characterized the work of Hermann Nitsch during five decades of continuous artistic creation. The new Hermann Nitsch Museum honors this life’s work with the largest public exhibition of the artist’s work ever. The museum’s opening will be celebrated in conjunction with the completion of the first construction phase of the MZM Museumszentrum Mistelbach, which is being built within the former industrial park of the Heger plow factory.

In addition to exhibiting the works of Hermann Nitsch, the museum will be devoted to researching and documenting the artist’s work. An effort will be made to demonstrate the interdisciplinary connections and influences that have emanated from the complex and all-encompassing artistic endeavor known as the Orgy Mystery Theater (OMT). Experts from the humanities, including specialists in theology, mythology, psychology, philosophy, cultural studies and the arts as well as those with backgrounds in theater, performance, Actionism, painting, photography, film, music and literature will reflect on Nitsch’s work in lectures, symposia and publications. Nitsch’s music, which plays a key role in the Orgy Mystery Theater, will be a focus of special attention and developed in cooperation with local music schools and brass bands.

In order to provide a visualization of the oeuvre’s diversity, both entire work complexes and work groups with either temporal or spatial connections will be shown in alternating presentations. To facilitate the publication and documentation of his accomplishments, the artist has agreed to put his artworks at the disposal of the MZM Museumszentrum Mistelbach for forty years without accepting any payment.

The idea of devoting a museum to Hermann Nitsch in his native land, the Lower Austrian region known as the Weinviertel, was brought to life by project initiator Christian Resch, Mayor of Mistelbach. Wolfgang Denk was commissioned to elaborate the museum’s conception and planning as its founding director and curator. The facility’s architectural realization was carried out by the Viennese firm archipel architektur + kommunikation (Johannes Kraus, Michael Lawugger).

On the occasion of the first presentation of the Hermann Nitsch Museum’s permanent collection, a catalog with contributions by Carl Aigner, Heinz Cibulka, Wolfgang Denk, Hermann Nitsch, Wieland Schmied and Romana Schuler is being published by Hatje-Cantz in German and English.

The total surface area of the three-museum complex under construction in Mistelbach is 6,116 square meters. The opening of the Weinviertel Life World is planned for October 2007. The third and last stage of the museum center’s opening will take place in early 2008 with the christening of the International Altar Wine Archive. By the summer of 2008, the Dionysian Walk linking the MZM Museumszentrum Mistelbach with the Weinviertel Frieze “Gemischter Satz” by Heinz Cibulka will be finished.

The future infrastructure of the MZM Museumszentrum Mistelbach, which will also be accessible outside of opening hours, includes a museum shop, a cafÈ/restaurant, a wine shop, a multimedia auditorium and facilities for special cultural events. The MZM Museumszentrum Mistelbach will also house the Lower Austrian Painting Academy under the directorship of G¸nther Esterer.