Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
gold dome survived the fire). The ground floor is still used as it was originally intended:
presenting temporary exhibitions of contemporary art.
The building is certainly a move away from the Ringstrasse architectural throwbacks.
Its most striking feature is a delicate
golden dome
rising from a turret on the roof that de-
serves better than the description 'golden cabbage' accorded it by some Viennese.
VIENNESE ACTIONISM
Viennese Actionism spanned the period from 1957 to 1968 and was one of the most extreme of all modern-art
movements. It was linked to the Vienna Group (formed in the 1950s by HC Artmann), whose members experi-
mented with surrealism and Dadaism in their sound compositions and textual montages. Actionism sought ac-
cess to the unconscious through the frenzy of an extreme and very direct art; the Actionists quickly moved from
pouring paint over the canvas and slashing it with knives to using bodies (live people, dead animals) as 'brushes'
and using blood, excrement, eggs, mud and whatever came to hand as 'paint'. The traditional canvas was soon
dispensed with altogether and the artist's body instead became the canvas. This turned the site of art into a delib-
erated event (a scripted 'action', staged both privately and publicly) and even merged art with reality.
It was a short step from self-painting to inflicting wounds upon the body, and engaging in physical and psy-
chological endurance tests. For 10 years the Actionists scandalised the press and public, inciting violence and
panic - but they got plenty of publicity. Often poetic, humorous and aggressive, the actions became increasingly
politicised, addressing the sexual and social repression that pervaded the Austrian state. The press release for
Art
in Revolution
(1968) gives the low-down on what could be expected at a typical action: '[Günter] Brus un-
dressed, cut himself with a razor, urinated in a glass and drank his urine, smeared his body with faeces and sang
the Austrian national anthem while masturbating (for which he was arrested for degrading state symbols and
sentenced to six months' detention)'. This was, not entirely surprisingly, the last action staged in Vienna. For
more,
Click here
.
Parlament
(
LANDMARK
401 10 2400;
www.parlament.gv.at
;
01, Dr-Karl-Renner-Ring 3; tours adult/under 19yr €5/free, visitor centre
free; guided tours hourly 11am-4pm Mon-Sat, visitor centre 8.30am-6.30pm Mon-Fri, 9.30am-4.30pm Sat;
Rathaus, Volkstheater, D, 1, 2 Stadiongasse/Parlament)
The Parlament building opposite the Volks-
garten strikes a governing pose over the Ringstrasse. Its neoclassical facade and Greek
pillars, designed by Theophil Hansen in 1883, are impressive, and the beautiful
Athena
Fountain
, sculpted by Karl Kundmann, which guards the building, offsets it magnificently.
The visitor centre has exhibitions on political and parliamentary themes.
Rathaus
LANDMARK
(City Hall;
525 50;
www.wien.gv.at
; 01, Rathausplatz 1;
guided tours 1pm Mon, Wed & Fri;
Rathaus,
The crowning glory of the Ringstrasse boulevard's 19th-century
D, 1, 2 Rathaus)
