| In the photography reportage HERMES PHETTBERG: “I want to live” the sports journalist Nina Strasser documents the life of someone who is not willing to give up living in the limelight, even if he is destitute and very ill. Hermes Phettberg is always at the centre –lonely, but not abandoned. Visitors beware: The photos are sometimes hard to digest.
Born Josef Fenz, he became known in the mid eighties for being the co-founder of the association Libertine Sodamosochismusinitiative Wien (Libertine sadomasochism Initiative Vienna). After numerous stunts and other art events he reached the pinnacle of his career in the nineties as the television talk show host of ‘Phettbergs Nette Leit Show’.
The work of the former bank employee revolved around provocation, using his favoured topics of sadomasochism, homosexuality and Catholicism. His brilliance and provocation came through a radical openness regarding his personal preferences, bodily functions and questioning of others. His work has been awarded various prizes. In 2007 his longtime friend Kurt Palm immortalised him in the documentary ‘Hermes Phettberg, miserable. He still writes the column ‘Phettbergs Predigtdienst’ for the weekly paper ‘Falter’. His thoughts can be followed through Twitter and on his website (www.phettberg.at), where, as so often in his work, food plays an important role.
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