I just read your post with interest. I've been doing a little research on Soros, his art museum in Kosovo which champions this type of art and how he uses contemporary art as one of the ways to destabalize nations.

I've not got much time at the moment but there are connections between Nitsch, Abramovic, Viennese Actionism, Action Research, the Tavistock Insitute.

First, here's a documentary on Viennese Actionists (includes Nitsch and Abramovic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-o8Dp4lmo

Performance actionism which was born in the early part of the 20th century and was a reaction to the commercialisation of the arts, and also politically motivated because of the wars and the politics of the time, originated in Central Europe. Often difficult to find in the literature is the symbiotic relationship with intelligence services like the Tavistock Insitute.

This link takes you to the chapter in the Handbook of Qualitative Research which links the Tavistock Institute with action research: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=X85J8ipMpZEC&pg=PA560&lpg=PA560&dq=viennese+actionism+actionism+research+tavistock&source=bl&ots=D2RbJ2K3lo&sig=IO2QkrX8ZrVje5BlssKvxlop0YM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_1rbEtfbRAhWsKsAKHa3XCUAQ6AEINDAE#v=onepage&q=viennese%20actionism%20actionism%20research%20tavistock&f=false

With Tavistock the literature often does not make it clear who is influencing who. Sometimes it's like a chicken and egg situation: which came first ?

Got to run..I'll come back to this shortly.