Gesamtkunstwerk. The Laboratory of the Senses
\nAt the Hermann Nitsch Museum<\/p>\n
NEW EXHIBITION DISPLAY
\nCurated by Giuseppe Morra and Massimo Maiorino<\/p>\n
27 February \u2013 31 July 2026
\nOPENING 27 February \u2013 6.00 pm<\/p>\n
Museo Archivio Laboratorio per le Arti Contemporanee Hermann Nitsch
\nVico Lungo Pontecorvo 29\/d, 80135 Napoli<\/p>\n
The Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee, in collaboration with the Fondazione Morra and as part of the Fondazione Donnaregina\u2019s Cultural Actions \u2013 Progetto XXI programme, presents Gesamtkunstwerk. The Laboratory of the Senses at the Hermann Nitsch Museum, curated by Giuseppe Morra and Massimo Maiorino, on view from 27 February to 31 July 2026 at the Hermann Nitsch Museum.
\nFor the first time, the exhibition reassembles a fundamental nucleus of the museum\u2019s collection within its full conceptual and perceptual unity. It does so through a newly conceived installation structured as a Laboratory of the Senses: an immersive and process-based environment in which the artwork is not presented as a completed object but as an active device, capable of engaging visitors in a total aesthetic experience. In keeping with the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk, the museum becomes a living organism in which painting, action-objects, sound, space, time and corporeality converge to generate an intensified perception of reality, reaffirming Hermann Nitsch\u2019s vision of the artwork as a radical extension of life.<\/p>\n
The exhibition centres on three large-scale paintings created for the 152.aktion, napoli 2017, one of the artist\u2019s most radical performative actions. These works are presented in dialogue with photographic and video documentation of the action, alongside a selection of instruments from Nitsch\u2019s painterly and performative practice. Also included is a significant portion of the chemical and pharmaceutical laboratory donated by the Scotto di Vettimo family, comprising bottles, flasks, alembics and containers that evoke the alchemical and experimental dimension of Nitsch\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
The display integrates artworks, documents and heterogeneous materials within an integrated sensory environment activated by the sound of the artist\u2019s musical scores, the chromatic intensity of the paintings, the olfactory presence of essences and flowers, and the potential for tactile and gustatory experience. In this way, the museum is transformed into a relational and participatory space that challenges the paradigms of classical museology and proposes a new anthropology of aesthetic experience.<\/p>\n
The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive public programme of talks, all delivered in Italian, featuring scholars and academics from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. These encounters are conceived as moments of critical reflection and discussion and include: An Idea of the Synesthetic Museum with Stefania Zuliani; Hermann Nitsch: The 152.aktion as a Total Work of Art with Lorenzo Mango; The Musical Scores of Hermann Nitsch with Massimiliano Locanto; The Museum as Performative Space with Maria Giovanna Mancini; The Painterly Experience of Hermann Nitsch with Maria De Vivo; Display Cases, Pedestals, Cabinets: Museum Punctuation in the Laboratory of the Senses with Elisabetta Modena; and The Nitsch Museum Laboratory as a Model of Sensory Curatorship with Gianpaolo Cacciottolo, culminating in a concluding synthesis meeting.<\/p>\n
The entire project, including the installation, the exhibited works and the critical contributions developed through the talks, will form the basis of a dedicated publication, reaffirming the museum as a site of experimentation, embodied knowledge and profound participation.<\/p>\n
Gesamtkunstwerk. The Laboratory of the Senses at the Hermann Nitsch Museum forms part of the Cultural Actions \u2013 Progetto XXI programme, a platform through which the Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee has promoted, since 2012, research and the enhancement of contemporary artistic practices, from emerging experiences to the most radical and seminal investigations. The programme contributes to the construction of alternative narratives of the contemporary and to the development of a regional arts system grounded in collaboration between public institutions and private partners.
\nThe project is developed in collaboration with the Fondazione Morra and is funded within the framework of the project \u201cRelaunch and Support of the Fondazione Donnaregina \u2013 Progetto XXI Section\u201d \u2013 POR FESR Campania 2014\u20132020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"