As you navigate through the prolific and diverse works of Austrian artist Valie Export, you embark on a journey of unapologetic feminist expression that is at once deeply unsettling and cathartic. In an artistic career spanning over five decades, Valie Export has fearlessly confronted societal taboos around gender, sexuality and the body through mediums ranging from performance art to experimental film. Her masterful use of shock and provocation is a deliberate tactic to shake audiences out of complacency and ignite discourse on issues that remain as relevant today as when she first emerged on the art scene in the late 1960s.
Though Export’s works were polarizing, her immense impact on feminist art and her influence on generations of artists is undeniable. Valie Export’s life was her art, and her art gave women a voice. She is a pioneer who will live on through the lasting power and truth of her creative vision.
To fully appreciate the depth and impact of Export’s oeuvre requires an understanding of the cultural context in which she has created, as well as her own evolution as an artist responding to the changing challenges of each era.
Valie Export BIOGRAPHY
Early Life and Education
Valie Export was born Waltraud Lehner in Linz, Austria in 1940. She studied at the University of Fine Arts in Vienna, earning a degree in Graphic Design and Typography in 1967.
During her studies, Export became interested in film and performance art. She started creating provocative street actions and experimental films that explored themes of female sexuality, physicality and empowerment. Her radical and subversive work aimed to confront and challenge conservative post-war Austrian society.
In 1967, Export legally changed her name as a way of reinventing her artistic identity and rebelling against traditional female roles. She chose “Valie Export” as a masculine-sounding name to be provocative and show that she would not be bound by conventional expectations of womanhood.
During the 1970s, Export continued creating confrontational feminist performance art, showing at the Venice Biennale and Documenta. Her visceral, politically charged works earned her recognition as a pioneer of avant-garde film and performance art. Though controversial, Export’s unapologetic art was instrumental in launching feminist discourse in Austria and beyond. Her bold and daring approach to creating has inspired generations of feminist artists.
What is Valie Export known for?
Valie Export’s influential and groundbreaking work earned her recognition as a pioneer of performance art, video art and feminist art. Her unapologetic and revolutionary pieces broke taboos, exposed biases and envisioned a society of greater equality and sexual freedom. Export’s provocative art and activism transformed attitudes, inspired fellow feminists and empowered women to challenge patriarchal structures.
Career highlights
Emergence of the Provocative Feminist Artist
Emerging in the late 1960s, Valie Export gained fame as a provocative feminist performance artist. Known for confronting social taboos related to the female body and sexuality, Export sought to challenge traditional gender roles and question the male gaze.
In the 1970s, she began incorporating new media like video and expanded her practice to include photography, sculpture and installation. Export’s art evolved with the feminist movement, exploring issues of identity, the relationship between the sexes and women’s experiences in a male-dominated world.
Pushing Boundaries Through Performance Art
As an avant-garde performance artist, Valie Export pushed boundaries and provoked audiences with her confrontational and subversive acts.
1968 | Aktionshose: Genital Panik (Action Pants: Genital Panic) | The film epitomized her provocative style. For the film, she walked through crowded Vienna with crotchless trousers, confronting unwitting bystanders with her exposed genitalia. The shocking action highlighted the “panic” caused by the sight of female genitalia in public. |
“Tap and Touch Cinema” | Export challenged traditional gender roles by inviting audience members to touch her bare breasts while she sat in a movie theater. This act of defiance and provocation upset social conventions about female nudity and sexuality. | |
“Remote…Remote” | This film featured a naked woman wandering city streets with a TV monitor strapped to her body, displaying images that change based on the locations she passes through. Export described this as “public television” that brought the medium of film out of the movie theater and into the realm of lived experience. |
Exploring Female Identity
Much of Export’s work centered around themes of female identity, gender roles, and sexuality. Her performances and films aimed to empower women by subverting patriarchal ideals of femininity.
In “Syntagma,” Export filmed two nude women wrestling and grappling in a pseudo-sexual manner. This surreal and jarring short film represented her vision of an unapologetically liberated female sexuality freed from male objectification or control.
Through her daring performances, films, and conceptual art, Valie Export challenged social taboos, confronted patriarchal values, and redefined the possibilities of artistic media. Her provocative and unapologetic works made her a pioneer of feminist art and an influential figure in 20th-century avant-garde movements.
Valie Export List of Work
Exploring Identity and the Body
1968 | “Container” | Export locked herself in a transparent box, commenting on the restrictions placed on women in society. |
“Body Painting I” | Export used her own body as a medium for expression. This work featured Export applying her own menstrual blood as paint on her own body. This shocking work aimed to overcome the stigma around menstruation and reclaim women’s bodies. | |
1970 | “Splitting” | Export filmed herself breaking through a sheet of glass with her head, a metaphor for female liberation from oppressive gender norms. |
1973 | “Bodies of Work” | It featured female factory workers in a claustrophobic space, highlighting the exploitation of women’s labor. |
Through her revolutionary performances, installations and films, Valie Export confronted the politics of gender, sexuality and power. Her visceral and deeply personal art aimed to empower women and give voice to female experiences.
Influential Avant-Garde Filmmaker
In addition to performance art, Export worked in experimental film. Her films explored themes of female identity and sexuality through a feminist lens. Notable works include:
- “Mann & Frau & Animal” (1973)
- “Syntagma” (1983)
Export’s films utilized avant-garde techniques like rapid montage, repetition, and fragmentary imagery to challenge traditional narrative structure and generate new ways of seeing and experiencing sexuality, identity and power relations.
Legacy and Impact
Valie Export’s provocative and revolutionary works of performance art, film, and photography have cemented her status as an influential figure in feminist art. Her bold and controversial performances in the late 1960s and early 1970s confronted traditional gender roles and explored themes of female identity, the male gaze, and sexuality.