Valie EXPORT, Tapp und Tastkino (Touch Cinema), 1968. Courtesy: sixpackfilm
Join Piero Tomassoni and Cassius Matthias for an engaging talk exploring the deep and often overlooked connections between Austrian art, experimental film, and the evolution of American visual culture. Tracing a trajectory from the radical practices of postwar Vienna to the emergence of the U.S. avant-garde, Tomassoni will map a transatlantic exchange in which ideas and gestures move fluidly between art and cinema, reshaping both fields in the process.
The conversation will examine how key figures and successive generations of artists and filmmakers redefined the relationship between body, image, and spectatorship, influencing new approaches to performance across continents. Rare film excerpts from Austrian archives will accompany the talk, offering a vivid visual counterpoint to this exploration of artistic transmission and dialogue.
Doors open at 6:15 PM.
The event starts at 7:00 PM and is followed by an Austrian wine reception.
ABOUT PIERO TOMASSONI
Piero Tomassoni is a curator, writer, and lecturer, specializing in post-war and contemporary European and American art, with a focus on its intersections with performance, architecture, and literature. He has lectured at leading institutions including the Courtauld Institute, the Royal College of Art, the Architectural Association School, the University of Oxford, and the Accademia di Brera. He is the founder of ARTVISOR, a leading curatorial and art advisory firm based in London and operating globally.
A central strand of his research explores Austrian art—particularly the legacy of Viennese Actionism and its relationship to cinema. In this context, he has worked closely with Hermann Nitsch, collaborating on exhibitions and talks, and serves as a trustee and board member of the Hermann Nitsch Museum in Naples. In 2025, he co-organized a YES & NO talk at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts with artists Ashley Hans Scheirl and Ursula Pürrer, focusing on experimental Austrian cinema and video art.
ABOUT CASSIUS MATTHIAS
Cassius Matthias is a filmmaker, writer, and publisher whose work spans film production, storytelling, and cultural dialogue. Born in London’s East End, he studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins before moving into film, where he has worked across all stages of production with leading British directors on projects for studios including Paramount Pictures and Channel 4.
In 2017, he founded YES & NO, an award-winning, internationally distributed print magazine dedicated to in-depth cultural dialogue. Alongside writing and directing his own films, Matthias lectures on filmmaking and visual culture at institutions such as the ICA, BFI Southbank, Neue Galerie New York, and MIT, and continues to work across film, publishing, and public programmes internationally.