"Wiener Spaziergang"

Photographer: Ludwig Hoffenreich

gelatin silver print on cardboard

signed (pencil) and stamp on mount verso

At an exhibition opening in the Galerie Junge Generation in Vienna on July 6, 1965, Günter Brus left the private sphere for the first time with the action "Wiener Spaziergang" and entered public space as a living painting:
"The day before this exhibition opening with action and discussion, I decided to avoid the compromise character of this undertaking to a certain extent, in order to give my artistic intentions more clarity. One could say that the hermaphroditic activity of this gallery drove me from the rat cellars to the street. I decided to take a walk as a quasi living picture through the city centre of Vienna, past several historically significant buildings. Starting point of my walk was the Heldenplatz. Through the Burgtor, past the Spanish Riding School and the Dorotheum, my route should lead to the Stephansplatz. I did not give myself any information about what was to happen there, rightly suspecting that soon the watchful eye of a guardian of public order would see the living painting and arrest it. This happened at the corner of Bräunerstraße and Stallburggasse. A policeman led me to the amusement of the passers-by into a nearby guardroom. They took my personal details and sent a taxi."
(Günter Brus, 1989)