Viennese Actionism is a 1960s artistic movement, consisting of a transgressive reinterpretation of artistic expression and a radical critique of Austrian society. Its members carried out artistic actions or performance art using the human body, animals, guts, blood, excrement and sperm in an outrageous and violent manner.

Fluxus is an artistic movement that also appeared in the 1960s, whose members (George Maciunas, Nam June Paik, Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono, Ben, Robert Filliou, etc.) worked in music, theatre and the visual arts, drawing inspiration from John Cage, Marcel Duchamp and Dada. Fluxus artists used their actions and performances in an attempt to break down all barriers between art and life, and to promote art as an experimental process.