Mama and Papa 7 1964

Curator: My first impression? Chaotic, and darkly ritualistic. It gives me shivers. Editor: I can see why! We're looking at Otto Muehl's "Mama and Papa 7" from 1964. It's a photograph, actually a documentation of a mixed-media performance from his actionist phase. Curator: Ah, performance… Explains the… everything. There's a theatricality to the grotesqueness that I find fascinating. A woman is tied to something above, nearly nude, and a man in a suit is pouring something, perhaps goo?, all over her. It is so disturbing that it’s alluring. I can’t look away. Editor: Muehl was deeply engaged in challenging bourgeois society after the Second World War, using his performances to push boundaries around body art, abjection, and the structures of power. The piece takes place against what seems to be a very staged backdrop, maybe to suggest domestic spaces that should feel safe? Curator: Safe is certainly not the word I would use. More like a staged nightmare. The domestic angle you're suggesting adds a layer – perverted ideals, perhaps? It reads as a very uncomfortable family portrait. Look how proper the man’s suit is. Is this supposed to say something about the performance of manhood and of dominance? Editor: The performance element is vital. Muehl’s actionism challenged traditional art forms, turning the artist’s body and those of participants into raw material. Consider the era—it was a time of great societal upheaval and Muehl sought to confront societal hypocrisy and the lingering trauma of war. How do you perceive the symbolism here? Curator: Hard to say with certainty but the liquid being poured feels like defilement. Perhaps the man performing an act of control or desecration, against the raw and exposed figure, is trying to evoke primal and deeply upsetting responses from us, his audience? It is raw emotional terrorism. And… the title hints at it as a domestic thing, "Mama and Papa," a household. Who are these people?! Editor: The ambiguity is part of its strength, I think. These performances acted as a kind of social and political mirror reflecting back anxieties around authority, repression, and sexuality that defined post-war Austria. He’s playing with power, performance, and the abject to spark reaction. Curator: It definitely sparks a reaction. And that reaction makes you start to ask difficult questions about things that make us who we are. I wonder about that so often when creating pieces… and when viewing pieces that spark conversations, just like this one. Editor: Absolutely. "Mama and Papa 7" certainly captures the turmoil of a generation wrestling with trauma, hypocrisy, and the search for new forms of expression and the redefinition of art’s role in the public sphere. It also continues to make me feel disturbed and unsettled. Which is likely what he was aiming for.