VALIE EXPORT Time and Countertime

Transcription

1 LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz Information Sheet VALIE EXPORT Time and Countertime 17 October 2010 to 30 Jänner 2011 DVR-Nummer LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz, A-4021 Linz, Ernst-Koref-Promenade 1 Tel: +43 (0) Fax: +43 (0)

2 Contents Exhibition Facts 3 Press Text 4 Catalogue Foreword Stella Rollig / Agnes Husslein-Arco 6 Biography VALIE EXPORT 8 Biography Angelika Nollert 9 Exhibits 10 Press Images and Credits 22 Seite 2

3 Exhibition Facts Exhibition Title: VALIE EXPORT. Time and Countertime Exhibition Duration 17 October 2010 to 30 January 2011 Opening: Saturday, 16 October 2010, 7 pm Press Conference Thursday, 14 October 2010, 11 am Exhibition Venue LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz Exhibits More than 40 works belonging to the genres photography, video, installation and sculpture Curator Dr. Angelika Nollert Cooperation The exhibition was developed in close cooperation between LENTOS Kunstmuseum and Belvedere Wien. The opening of the exhibition at the Lower Belvedere takes place on 15 October, 7 pm. The exhibition runs until 30 January The Press Conference at Belvedere takes place on 15 October, 10 am. An information sheet with images concerning the exhibition at Belvedere is available for downloading at Additional Venue Museion Museum for modern and contemporary art 19 February 1 May 2011, Catalogue VALIE EXPORT. Time and Countertime, published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne with essays by Sabeth Buchmann, Yilmaz Dziewior, Agnes Husslein-Arco, Elke Krasny, Hanne Loreck, Maren Lübbke-Tidow, Angelika Nollert, Letizia Ragaglia, Brigitte Reutner, Stella Rollig, Johanna Schwanberg, Berta Sichel Price 38,, ISBN Exhibition Booklet Dr. in Dunja Schneider, Mag. a Nina Kirsch Contact Ernst-Koref-Promenade 1, 4020 Linz, Tel. +43(0)732/ ; info@lentos.at, Opening Hours Daily 10 am -6 pm; Thu 10 am-9 pm Admission 6.50, Concessions 4.50 Press Contact Mag. a Nina Kirsch, Tel. +43(0)732/ , nina.kirsch@lentos.at Available at the Press Conference: Stella Rollig, Director LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz Dr. Angelika Nollert, Curator of both exhibitions VALIE EXPORT, Artist Seite 3

4 Press Text To underline the topicality and undiminished importance of VALIE EXPORT s work, two comprehensive exhibitions, both curated by Angelika Nollert, are scheduled for 2010/11: one in the artist s birth place, Linz, the other in Vienna, the city where she has chosen to work. The two exhibitions will be taking place simultaneously, one at the LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz (Opening: 16 October) and the other at the Belvedere Vienna (Opening: 15 October). In both the emphasis will be on the artist s work over the last 20 years, especially on spatial installations. In these works themes are in evidence that partly hark back to earlier artworks. Some display this kinship in formal terms, others pick up the thread begun in older works in their content. The development and redevelopment of artistic motifs, their semantic shifts, the differences with regard to the media used and their sheer number and diversity are to be amply and adequately documented in Vienna and in Linz. Completely autonomous by design, the two exhibitions are nevertheless interlinked and supplement each other in terms of content to let visitors experience VALIE EXPORT s work as a single multidimensional and multimedia-based space. The exhibitions organize the artist s work along different thematic strands, such as works addressing trauma and violence; female role models and the ways women are made to conform; the modifications and changes brought about by architecture and urban and/or rural contexts; different mental states, irritating worlds of perception and the power of language. Even though VALIE EXPORT s works have featured in a great number of exhibitions both in Austria and abroad, it is still her early work that has been paramount in terms of the artist s reception: Touch Cinema, Action Pants and the BODY SIGN ACTION are considered icons of art history. They have acquired a status that makes them almost synonymous with VALIE EXPORT s work as a whole. It is therefore all the more important to draw attention to another of VALIE EXPORT s great achievements: in a great number of utterly diverse works, she has consistently developed new and topical content and a novel, congenial formal language to deal with her signature themes. Seite 4

5 The video works and video installations, the video, film and TV rooms and the conceptual photo work present the themes of VALIE EXPORT s artistic work in the light of her consistent use and, even more notably, her independent development of a media specific language. Enabling new perspectives on VALIE EXPORT s œuvre has been an important consideration in planning the exhibitions in Vienna and Linz. This is why altogether less well-known, recent large scale works have been accorded a prominent place, making it possible for visitors to view the classic icons embedded in a much broader artistic context. One catalogue, containing a selection of essays by internationally renowned authors, will accompany the two exhibitions. While the exhibitions organize the artist s work along different thematic strands and examine the impact these have on different media, the catalogue opts for the opposite strategy: the essays analyze the effects resulting from VALIE EXPORT s choice of media on the content of her works. Acknowledged experts will be discussing the artist s use of film, photography, drawing, performance, sculpture and installation and how these relate to what she has to say on the female role model and female identity. Seite 5

6 Catalogue Foreword In appreciation of the relevancy and importance of VALIE EXPORT s work, the Belvedere and LENTOS museums have organized major exhibitions for the autumn of 2010 at two locations: the longtime center of the artist s life, Vienna, and the city of her birth, Linz. Over a period of decades, VALIE EXPORT has created a body of work that from its earliest manifestations in the 1960s employed what was accurately called and what we still call «new» media. She has always been a pioneer, in both her means and her forms of expression: «expanded cinema,» conceptual photography, installations, performance, working with text and theory. With a powerful, yet extremely refined sensitivity, the artist takes social and media structures and exposes them, critically examining and analyzing this dispositive material. The resulting diversity of stylistic elements, which always bring new aspects to EXPORT s work, is surprising and impressive. No less impressive and even more important in gaining an understanding of her position is the decidedly emancipatory commitment of the artist as a social activist. These two simultaneous exhibitions focus on VALIE EXPORT s work from the last 20 years, particularly that involving large-space installations. The exhibitions are organized not chronologically, but rather by theme. Project curator Angelika Nollert worked with the artist to define thematic links between new and earlier works, and designed both presentations with content-based criteria in mind. The exhibition design makes clear that themes and content of the artist s work remain consistent over the decades. A major focus is on societal pressures and conditioning, which EXPORT has revealed and combated from a woman s perspective. The exhibitions in Vienna and Linz provide a representative picture of the development and advancement of EXPORT s artistic motifs, their semantic shifts, their contrasting media character, and the abundance and diversity of her works. These exhibitions, while basically independent, also interlock with and complement one another, making possible a total-space experience of VALIE EXPORT s multidimensional, multimedia work. Seite 6

7 To this day, despite her continual production of new works and intensive schedule of exhibitions both at home and abroad, the artist is best known for her early works: Touch Cinema (1968), Action Pants (1969) and BODY SIGN ACTION (1970) are synonyms for VALIE EXPORT and have long been icons of art history. Through our projects in Belvedere and Lentos we wish to present the artist s work in all its facets and all its infectious vitality. It is central to VALIE EXPORT s great achievement that she continuously finds new motifs for her chosen themes and new, fitting modes of expression in great number and diversity: about the image of the woman and its incorporation, modification and transformation through architecture, city or landscape; but also about psychological states and injury and violence, as well as about disturbing perceptions of reality and forms of linguistic expression. By presenting some of her lesser-known works, many of which are large and more recent, the museums in Vienna and Linz afford a new perspective on the oeuvre of VALIE EXPORT. We owe our greatest debt of thanks to VALIE EXPORT herself, who joined with us to realize this ambitious project with passion and commitment. Working with the artist, Angelika Nollert applied her knowledge to the preparation and implementation of the brilliant, integrative concept for the two exhibitions. We also wish to express our gratitude to our colleagues, who have dedicated themselves to making this extraordinary project possible. Agnes Husslein-Arco Director, Belvedere Vienna Stella Rollig Director, LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz Seite 7

8 Biography VALIE EXPORT born in Linz, lives and works in Vienna VALIE EXPORT s artistic work includes video environments, digital photography, installations, body performances, feature films, experimental films, documentary films, «expanded cinema», conceptual photography, body-material interactions, persona performances, laser installations, objects, sculptures, texts on contemporary art history and feminism. VALIE EXPORT is one of the most important international pioneers of conceptual art, whether in media, performance or film. Since 1968 she has presented her work internationally, in solo exhibitions and solo presentations, as well as at international art exhibitions, including the Biennale di Venezia, (Venice), ars electronica (Linz), the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), the MUMOK (Vienna), Shanghai Art Museum (Shanghai), the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Seoul), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Tate Modern (London), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), documenta (Kassel), the Generali Foundation (Vienna), the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), MoCA (Los Angeles), P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (New York) and The Museum of Modern Art (New York). In addition, VALIE EXPORT has participated in numerous international film and video festivals, such as the International London Film Festival, Filmex (Los Angeles), the Berlin International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Women s International Film Festival (Montreal), the 6th International Film Festival Vancouver and in such locations as San Francisco, Locarno, Hong Kong, Sydney and New York. For further information on VALIE EXPORT s work, as well as detailed and current lists of exhibitions and screenings, see Seite 8

9 Biography Angelika Nollert Angelika Nollert studied art history, archaeology and German studies at the universities of Würzburg and Münster after training in banking. She worked on exhibition projects for various museums, including Skulptur. Projekte in Münster (1997). From 1997 to 2000 she was curator at Portikus in Frankfurt am Main, before taking the position of project director for documenta11 in Kassel in 2001/2002. In 2007 she was named project director for visual arts in the Siemens Arts Program in Munich. Since October 2007 she has directed the Neues Museum Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design in Nuremberg. Angelika Nollert has taught, lectured and published extensively on the subject of contemporary art. Seite 9

10 Exhibits Shadow, 2010 photo editon cm Kunstuniversität Linz In the photo edition, VALIE EXPORT plays with the word SHADOW. The lettering grey on white is designed to suggest that it is in fact the shadows cast on this sheet of paper by threedimensional upper-case letters and seems to point to an object outside the picture. The letters look like a photogram and are a perfect embodiment of the meaning of the word they represent. The net proceeds of the hand-signed, limited photo edition will go to Kunstuniversität Linz. The VALIE-EXPORT-bursary will be awarded by an expert jury every other year to a student of the University. JUMP 1, 2009 photo edition cm Har-El edition/jaffa, Charim Galerie, Wien JUMP 2, 2009 photo edition cm Har-El edition/jaffa, Charim Galerie, Wien What is the human body capable of? EXPORT tackles this question from an explicitly feminist perspective. Again and again she explores the limits of the resilience of the (female) body. The series Bewegungsimaginationen from 1974/75 was colourized to provide the basis for the photographs of JUMP. The camera is trained on the upper, empty part of a room. By leaping up from below, EXPORT comes briefly into view. It is the act of jumping that enables the artist to play a trick on the camera and on technology in a wider sense: she stakes her claim on the (male) space covered by the camera, from which she had been excluded. The power of language, 2002 panoramic video installation: 6 min., color, transfer to DVD dimensions variable How do we form sounds and words? What bodily processes generate speech and how can our knowledge about these processes be expressed in artistic terms? The installation is the result of EXPORT s research on our vocal apparatus. Six monitors connected in series each show the glottis of a male test subject. Six times, with the briefest of intervals between each repetition, you hear the sentence: Die Macht der Sprache zeigt ihre Spur noch lange nach dem Schweigen (The power of language Seite 10

11 resonates in traces long after silence has set in). Filming what goes on in the glottis is made possible by the laryngoscope, a device used to obtain a view of the inside of the vocal box. In this way the vocal apparatus morphs into material for EXPORT s art. The meaning of the spoken sentence is changed and expanded by the anatomical images. Heads Aphärese, 2002 sculpture, object installation: 24 wax heads, 24 aluminum heads, 12 cast bronze heads, steel platforms, 3 DVDs, 3 flat screen monitors dimensions variable Surrealist texts by Paul Éluard in which each word is lacking one of its letters were EXPORT s inspiration for this installation. One of the forms of aphairesis (= taking something away) in a language related context is the removal of one or more letters from the beginning of a word or phrase, e.g. tis for it is. In short, the word or phrase is left without its head. These heads too are left without something important, something without which they are mere husks. Each is lacking a face, the archetypal set of features that makes each individual unique and immediately recognizable. Even though visual perception is thus sidelined, EXPORT maintains we may still communicate with the sculptures. For her these heads are still able both to laugh and to cry. Salzburg cycle 01-02, 01-03, 01-07, 01-12, 2001 digital photography b/w photography, silkscreen on acrylic glass, cm In 2001 EXPORT s preoccupation with the female body represented by digital media inspired a work of Art in the Public Arena for the building of Salzburg s Chirurgie West. The work takes its cue from black and white photos of (female) nurses working at the Allgemeines Krankenhaus Salzburg. EXPORT produces surrealist concepts of the women s features by combining them with fragments taken from the hospital s architecture and with geometrical patterns. To underline the point she was making people enter into a unity with their environment which in its turn exercises a formative influence on them she included texts by writers H. C. Artmann and Rosa Pock. Traces : ID GRAVIS, 2000 screen: 3 parts, b/w, silkscreen on rigid film, each segment cm We leave behind traces that are stored in the environment and can always be tracked back to their origins. To demonstrate how inextricably linked we are to our environment in this way, EXPORT created a folding screen with transparent glass sheets. Seite 11

12 On both sides of the sheets she printed three different motifs: elements of an electronic circuit, her own genetic code and her biography, modified by a specially written computer programme. In other words, she used three different languages that, beyond a small group of the initiated, are accessible only via translation. They are even difficult to tell apart at first sight. Minute electronic and human components are made to resemble each other far more closely than one would have thought possible. Needle, 1996/1997/2010 installation steel needles, rope, motor (with pulley), child s dress (red), each 600 cm From the very first beginnings of her career as an artist VALIE EXPORT has been at ease working with different media and in different artistic genres. Sculpture is the genre she seems to prefer for coping with the themes of vulnerability and violence. A striking example is the work Needle: three oversize motor-powered steel needles move up and down above a girl s red dress. The sculpture focuses attention on at least two issues simultaneously. The sewing needle is an emblem of monotonous work of the kind still associated primarily with women. The dress that is under threat from the needles and/or is being pierced by them can be seen as a symbol of the physical and mental violence children are exposed to and are mostly helpless to resist. Split word, 1994 text installation 24 PVC films with Unica Zürn text fragments, silkscreen, each segment ,7 cm I don t know how to make love. What I do know is that you don t make love. She cries in an attic lit by a wax light. Oh, she waxes in the light, in the wind at night. She stays awake in the soft picture, in the ice of Never, in entreaties: stay awake, as I do. I do know you don t make love the way I do. Translator s note: Making no attempt at the near impossible task of rendering Zürn s extraordinary poem in anagrammatic form, this translation only seeks to convey a bare outline of the meaning. This anagram by Unica Zürn ( ), whose literary work EXPORT rates very highly, was the seed for the installation. Anagrams are words or sentences that have been formed by rearranging the sequence of letters or words. They are thus emblematic of EXPORT s technique as an artist, which itself consists in taking things apart and rearranging the parts in a new order. Seite 12

13 Written in book script, the poem was printed on a foil using silk screening; the foil was then cut into strips, which were then rearranged. The printed stripes overlap, the letters and word fragments are part mirrored object, part original object, setting limits to the observer s capability to read the lines of the poem as originally intended by the poet. In works such as this, EXPORT s strong interest in linguistic lines of enquiry becomes evident. The idea of the anagram is translated into formal terms and becomes immediately accessible. You too may take a hand in giving the installation a new form by rearranging the strips. Rec Date: 1993o93oKillari Village, 1994 installation 4-part Jetprint on PVC mesh, metal frames, sheet dimensions: ,5 5 cm; 180, cm; 97,5 281,5 5 cm; cm The installation consists of photos of women mourning dead relatives printed on PVC netting. The title recalls an earthquake in the Indian village of Killari in September EXPORT appropriated agency photos for her work. Do such frequently shown pictures still touch our hearts or have we become immune to them? Are we really capable of imagining ourselves in the situation of the victims or do we lack empathy with the suffering of people belonging to a different culture? These are questions we can only answer for ourselves. Aura walking feets, 1990 video-film installation 6 windshields, video projector, DVD, each cm Six upright windscreens are arranged on the floor, standing in a row, one behind the other. A projector beams a film on to the screens. The film consists of sequence upon sequence on the same motif: walking feet. The curved transparent screens partly reflect and partly deflect the light and generally play havoc with the filmed feet. These are multiplied and come to resemble the aura rather than a conventional picture of a piece of reality. What might appear as banal in a different context is here sublimated so that reality and fiction change places. Orthogonal spatial vectors, 1990 sculpture, installation, photo object, digital photography b/w print on tissue paper, 14-part, 4 lead blocks, cm The installation Orthogonal Spatial Vectors takes its cue from one of EXPORT s first digital photographs: Stadtraum (1989). At that time EXPORT was experimenting a great deal with new technologies and created several photographs that combine female faces with cityscapes. In 1990 she went a step further and added the third dimension to her body-space studies. Seite 13

14 By dissolving the motif into a geometrical orthogonal (rectangular/vertical) pattern the artist aims to interpret the (female) human body as a unit of measurement within the theory of proportions: the body entering into an indissoluble unity with its cultural environment. Syntagma, 1983 avant-garde film 16 mm, 18 min., color (transfer to DVD) In her 20-minute short, Syntagma, EXPORT pulls together the results of her decades of research in the area of Expanded Cinema. This multimedia film showcases both her experiments with advanced film technology and her discourses on the female body. At the centre of Syntagma are a woman and her body. With the help of split-screen shots the motifs are divided into two parts. The two sequences of pictures side by side convey both unity and difference: this is in illustration of EXPORT s multiple-body theory, in which she claims that each body belongs to a number of different representational systems. Restricted code, 1979/2011 Performance by, among others, Catharina Bamberger and Johanna Goldgruber, students of Professor Eva Grubinger, Department of Sculpture/Transmedial Space at the Kunstuniversität Linz Restricted code, 1979/2010 performance, video performance 4 b/w photographs, each cm The photos document a performance that took place at the Städtische Galerie Lenbachhaus in EXPORT s aim was to explore whether there is such a thing as innate body language. Restricted code is originally a linguistic concept and refers here to body language shaped by social interaction. In addition to EXPORT, the performance involved a toddler, a dog, a hamster and a bird, all of them cooped up together in a kind of cage, and started with a ration of food being given to each of the test subjects. The artist imitates the behaviour of the child and of the animals. Restricted Code will be performed on 20 January 2011 at 7 pm and on 30 January 2011 at 4 pm by students of Sculpture / Transmedial Space at Kunstuniversität Linz. DELTA. a piece, 1976/1977/2010 photography 6 b/w photographs, each cm The photographs show VALIE EXPORT in the outfit and side by side with the objects that she had developed for the performance Delta. A piece. The performance has the revealing subtitle Seite 14

15 Ein Drama im Kontinuum der Verstörung in der zwischengeschlechtlichen Zweierbeziehung (A drama in the continuum of perplexity in the heterosexual ménage à deux). In the performance, which was acted out by the artist on a triangular oblique platform, Time, Space and Movement predominate. The autonomous photographs on the other hand focus on the props (shoulder and hand yoke, plaster casts of a male shoulder and hand, triangle, mirror) and on EXPORT s face. Borrowed from historical paintings, EXPORT s gestures symbolize women s subjugation in marriage and in patriarchal society in general. Split Video Mobile, 1975/2004 video sculpture (project) video installation: 8 video cameras, 8 monitors, wooden construction cm Split Video Mobile, 1975 video sculpture (project) concept paper, pencil, ink and marker on paper, cm This video installation, for which the original concept sheet is still extant and on display in the exhibition, enables visitors to observe their own movements. The title Split Video Mobile refers to the fact that visitors or observers themselves constitute the mobile element. As they move past the installation their progress is recorded by several cameras positioned on one side of a semicircular wall; the images are then reproduced on screens located on the other side of the wall. In this way a linear movement is split into fragments and transformed into a circular one. The time delay in the reproduction allows visitors to witness their own movements, reversed. Inversion-circle-line, 1975 video mobile, video sculpture variable dimensions, b/w, CCTV installation without sound track The installation consists of four monitor screens, a camera and a rotating device with a black ball attached to it. The ball describes a circular orbit. Each quarter of that orbit is separately recorded by the camera; the recorded movement is relayed to one of the monitors, where it appears in linear form. This linear movement is relayed to the other three monitors to coincide with the real-time movement of the ball. The result is the inversion as in the installation s title of a three-dimensional circular movement into a two-dimensional linear one. The installation is one of several experiments designed by EXPORT to explore space and perspective, both concepts of profound interest for her. Seite 15

16 Mirror drawing II, IV, V, VI, 1975 conceptual photography, series color photography, cm, 97 60,5 cm, cm, cm The Mirror Drawings are also referred to in the catalogue of EXPORT s oeuvre as Mirror Photos. Which of the two generic terms is correct? Both. The motifs are rendered in different media to open up different ways of looking at them. EXPORT has photographed the Mirror Drawings to produce a view from above. Sheets of plotting paper display black stripes that taper away towards the top as if suggessting a central perspective. A mirror is placed on each drawing, each time in a different position. The reflection in the mirror redirects the stripes, resulting in a spatial extension of the drawing. The photos exemplify EXPORT s preoccupation with the actual workings of human sight. The photographic apparatus determines every detail of what observers actually see and how they see it. Seeing space and hearing space, 1973/74 Image video, time sculpture room sculpture, time sculpture/room sculpture-melody video, 6 min. 19 sec, b/w, sound, transfer to DVD Room acoustics, spatial acoustics it s terms like these that remind us that space and sound are inseparably twinned. This performance, which was staged at the Kölner Kunstverein in 1974, turns on the location of sound sources in space. At regular intervals, a note is produced by a synthesizer and travels across the room. It moves to and fro and backwards and forwards. A certain volume is assigned to each location: if the sound source is located close to the listener, the note is louder, if it s further away, it s softer. All this combines to form a simple melody. We can hear space. Seeing space is made possible by different cameras all trained on EXPORT. Even though she herself remains static, an illusion of movement is created. The pictorial representations of her body that appear on the split-screen monitors are tied to the locations of the sounds in the room....remote...remote...passages, 1973/2007/2010 film installation as part of the work: The Pain of Utopia. Der Schmerz der Utopie, 28 min. 32 sec. 16 mm film processing, digital transfer, DVD The installation consists of a projected film and and a tank filled with oil. The oil s surface acts as another screen and reflects the film, which features VALIE EXPORT sitting in front of a black and white photo of children from the police archive on abused children. As if scenes like this were confined to some utterly remote place, the artist is completely wrapped up in savaging her finger tips with a Stanley knife for 16 long minutes. She keeps dipping her bleeding fingers into a bowl of milk. Seite 16

17 While disdaining to make an explicit connection between the abused children and the woman who is deliberately inflicting injuries on herself, the film is a powerful statement against violence and suffering. The word Passagen is inscribed in the film in mirrored form and can only be deciphered in its reflection in the oil tank. It seems to refer to the different phases of life, from childhood to adulthood. The reflection of the action of the film adds the third dimension and gives it the character of a sculpture. Adjunct dislocations, 1973 experimental film, spatial film, film installation, expanded cinema, film action, space film, 16 mm and Super 8 films, 10 min., b/w, without sound Generali Foundation, Vienna This Expanded Movie demonstrates how the body is instrumental for the exploration of the environment. Two 8mm-cameras were attached to the artist s torso, one in front, the other at the back. Her body forms the centre, and the two cameras film in opposite directions. EXPORT moves around freely in the city and in the country. She tries out all kinds of postures, even press-ups. Her body has become invisible as it is sandwiched between the pictures of its environment. The performance was filmed with a 16-mm camera. The results, the two 8-mm films and the 16-mm film, are projected side by side in the exhibition, on adjoining screens: what was dislocated is reassembled. Breath text: love poem (1970), 1973 video poem video: 2 min., b/w, transfer to DVD The camera is directed at a performer exerting herself to the utmost. The focus is on her torso behind a sheet of glass. Why is she so animated? Why does her breathing strain so against the glass? We wouldn t know if it was not for the title. EXPORT s powerful inhaling and exhaling and her efforts to catch her breath are amplified by a microphone on her throat. Line by line and column by column she works her way through the poem she is offering us, the poem that demands so unusual an expression. The motivation that drove the artist in this performance may have included the desire to feel her own body, the wish to explore the language of the body or non-traditional ways of communication and an overriding urge to give expression to a state of speechlessness. Seite 17

18 HOMOMETER, 1973/2010 an action at the sea with bread, Belgium 4 b/w photographs, each cm In HOMOMETER I, a performance first staged by EXPORT in 1973, the artist ties two big loaves of bread to her feet, deliberately making it nearly impossible for her to move forward. Bread, a symbol of the earth, the classic synonym for food and an emblem of the human body and of motherhood, is here seen as something that weighs you down. EXPORT demonstrates the diversity of readings that lie within every symbol. She proceeds from the assumption that the language of pictures differs radically from the language of words. What the photos express directly contradicts the connotations we traditionally associate with the word bread. Playing off the two languages against each other in this way produces a dramatic denouement and forces us to become aware of aspects of language that usually pass us by. EXTREME / ITIES OF BEHAVIOR, 1972/73 photo cycle, photography, photo collage b/w photography, cm The photo cycle EXTREME / ITIES OF BEHAVIOR was created by VALIE EXPORT simultaneously with the series Obsessions. This time the focus is on the artist s bitten fingernails. Hands are a frequently recurring motif in EXPORT s work. A great deal can after all be learned by observing people s hands and the state they are in. In this photo series, EXPORT is aiming to make mental states visible. The suffering of the psyche is projected outwards, manifesting itself in bodily symptoms. Sheet of glass with bullet hole, 1972 photo action, conceptual photography, each 10,5 10,5 cm Sammlung Inge Wögenstein The performer is standing in a landscape with dunes. She holds a sheet of glass in front of her so that a bullet hole in it directs the viewer s attention to certain parts of her body: one of her temples, her cheeks, eyes, mouth, forehead and, finally, abdomen and breast. EXPORT decided to classify this series as Conceptual Photography. The approach is undoubtedly a conceptual one: the idea is more important than the execution. For EXPORT however conceptual always brings with it a media reflective aspect: Who shoots the photo? What assumptions can we make about the photographer? What does his or her attention focus on? As for us, we are forced to direct our gaze at certain parts of the performer s body and become voyeurs, whether we want to or not. Seite 18

19 Obsessions, 1972 photographic series 3 b/w photos, each 38,5 6 cm What does it feel like to go to sleep with your skates on? This is the question raised by EXPORT in the performance Obsessions. The answer is reflected in the title and refers to the social restraints women are subject to. As an expanded exposition the installation consists of two panels depicting the artist asleep, an oblique board connecting the two, laden with pieces of broken glass and skates, and a canister filled with oil. The broken glass may recall the required break within society and the skates with their razor sharp edges suggest the radical tools that would be needed. As in remote remote passages the aim here is to give visual reality to states of mind. BODY TAPE, 1970 video video: 4 min., b/w, transfer to DVD Feet and hands testing the surface of a sheet of glass; a tongue being pressed against that transparent wall; an ear being pressed against its cold surface. In her four-minute short video, Body Tape, these are the takes with which EXPORT explores a glass surface, which doubles as the monitor screen, and the terms touching, boxing, feeling, hearing, tasting, pushing and walking. Using her body and the sheet of glass as her only prop, EXPORT mimics these terms in an animated charade. She makes words visible and analyzes their relationship to the ongoing action. up + down + on + off, 1968/2010 expanded movie 2 b/w photographs, each cm up + down + on + off, 1968/2004 expanded movie performance drawing, cm up + down + on + off is an Expanded Movie. A monument is filmed, with the camera circling it. EXPORT paints patterns on the individual frames of the sequence that partly obliterate the statue s outline. The film is then projected on to a screen. The parts missing from the outline are reconstructed by being pencilled in on the screen by the artist or other members of the audience. The result is an abstract picture consisting of the interplay of a multitude of lines. EXPORT called this picture the real film and demonstrates to us in this way what are the most important intentions of Expanded Cinema : expanding cineastic art beyond the projection screen, freeing viewers from their roles as passive consumers and bringing them into partnership with the artist. Seite 19

20 Ping Pong: a film to play a feature film, 1968 film action, action film, active screen, home movie, film installation, expanded cinema film installation, 3 min., b/w, table tennis rackets, table tennis ball dimensions variable A black dot moves to and fro on the cinema screen and you are supposed to hit it with a table tennis ball. Bat and ball are provided: PING PONG is ideal as an early morning sport or for relaxation [ ]. As you can see, TV can make a direct and active contribution to your health. This is EXPORT s ironic comment on television s alleged interactive capabilities. Of course it s the dot that is really in charge and all the players ever do is react. As an analogy to how communication works in the context of television, PING PONG also serves to describe the relationship between director and viewer: communication between them is reduced to the seesaw of stimulus and reaction. A film audience is never truly interactive. This is why EXPORT called this early work an attempt to emancipate the audience. Visual text: finger poem, 1968/1973 video poem Video, 2 min., b/w, without sound, transfer to DVD In Visual Text Finger Poem, language is embodied in the literal sense of the word. EXPORT uses gestures to convey individual letters. Even so most of us will remain in the dark about the underlying text because, contrary to traditional sign language, the artist s hands do not disappear behind the message they are supposed to convey. Instead, they are kept in the foreground and become material signs pointing to the nature of language. Questions concerning the nature of language were of the utmost importance to Martin Heidegger, the philosopher who the artist refers to in this project. For Heidegger, the function of language is to disclose the world to us and this, he claimed, was true above all of poetry, where the full essence of Being is encapsulated by language. EXPORT s poem is based on a dictum inspired by Heidegger, the result of a complex analytical exercise in hermetic linguistic philosophy: Ich sage die Zeige mit Zeichen im Zeigen der Sage. Abstract Film No. 1, /2007 expanded movie, action film performance drawing with milk on a mirror, cm Abstract Film No. 1 is EXPORT s opus 1 and is considered a seminal work in that it marks the beginning of Expanded Cinema. For Abstract Film No. 1 EXPORT places a light source in a dark auditorium. An oblique mirror deflects it on to a screen. The artist pours liquids of different colours on to the mirror, producing colourful and constantly changing abstract patterns on the screen. Seite 20

21 EXPORT s disavowal of technology to soften the demarcation line between life and art is clearly evident from her choice of elemental materials and the simplest possible projection technique. Abstract Film No. 1 reduces film production to its bare essentials, cutting out the use of celluloid altogether. All works are the property of the artist. Courtesy of Charim Galerie, Wien unless stated otherwise. The synopses of the exhibits were written by Dunja Schneider and Nina Kirsch for the exhibition booklet. Seite 21

22 Press Images The press photos are available for downloading at 1. VALIE EXPORT Heads Aphairesis, 2002 sculpture Photo: Herbert Fiedler Courtesy Charim Galerie, Wien VBK, Wien VALIE EXPORT DELTA. A piece, 1976/1977 Persona Performance, Photography Photo: Hermann Hendrich Courtesy Charim Galerie, Wien VBK, Wien VALIE EXPORT HOMOMETER, 1973 Action at the sea Photo: Eric Timmermann Courtesy Charim Galerie, Wien VBK, Wien VALIE EXPORT JUMP 1, 2009 Photo-Edition colour photography Courtesy Har-El edition, Jaffa/Charim Galerie, Wien Photo: Archiv VALIE EXPORT 7. VALIE EXPORT JUMP 2, 2009 Photo-Edition colour photography Courtesy Har-El edition, Jaffa/Charim Galerie, Wien Photo: Archiv VALIE EXPORT VBK, Wien VALIE EXPORT Seeing space and hearing space, 1974 Videostill of the performance Courtesy Generali Foundation, Wien VBK, Wien VALIE EXPORT Salzburg Cycle 01-03, 2001 Digital Photography Photo: Archiv VALIE EXPORT Courtesy Charim Galerie, Wien VBK, Wien 2010 Seite 22

23 10. VALIE EXPORT Syntagma, 1983 Filmstill Courtesy Charim Galerie, Wien VBK, Wien VALIE EXPORT Photo: mascheks Exhibition View VALIE EXPORT. Time and Countertime (with DELTA. A Piece and Needle) LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz Photo: mascheks Exhibition View VALIE EXPORT. Time and Countertime (with Heads Aphairesis) LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz Photo: mascheks Exhibition View VALIE EXPORT. Time and Countertime (mit Heads Aphairesis and Rec Date: Killari Village) LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz Photo: mascheks Exhibition View VALIE EXPORT. Time and Countertime (mit remote remote passagen ) LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz Photo: mascheks Exhibition View VALIE EXPORT. Time and Countertime (with Spilt Word) LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz Photo: mascheks Seite 23