Johannes Rass – Aktion Bos Taurus

Overview

It begins with the slaughter and butchering of a bull at the farm of a Lower Austrian farmer and butcher. In Hermann Nitsch's former studio space in Prinzendorf a. d. Zaya, Rass prepares the individual pieces of the bull, which are then reassembled into their original animal shape. The resulting bull sculpture is captured photographically and consumed by the guests in a final act. Urbaniak expands the documentation of Aktion Bos Taurus with interviews from the artist, Rita Nitsch, Günther Oberhollenzer, and the butcher Oliver Geißbüchler. Through the action — the artistic process, which reveals proximity to Nitsch's practice — Rass's work, with its independent conceptual approach, raises questions about our ambivalent and alienated relationship to animal carnality.