VALIE EXPORT 1960-1970

In the early 1960's VALIE EXPORT (she changed her name, it was always to be written in capital letters, in effect her artistic signature/logo) was exposed to a group of Viennese Actionists and poets that would influence her work and theories. Through these groups she got interested in Constructivism, which inspired her to work in new media. She started to experiment with photography and what she called ‘expanded cinema’, and began to label much of her work Anti-Art or No-Art. Her art became a political tool to react against society or the ‘establishment’ (more on this in the Viennese Actionism blog entry)

Her expanded cinema pieces started to include live performance form herself. Her body then became her most important tool. EXPORT used her body to question people's physical and mental identity. One of her important goals in performance was to separate the female body from eroticism. She said "I felt it was important to use the female body to create art. I knew that if I did it naked, I would really change how the (mostly male) audience would look at me. There would be no pornographic or erotic/ sexual desire involved-so there would be a contradiction."

Her views on the female body carried on to other works such as her performance at an art street fair in 1968. She performed "Touch Cinema" which involved strapping on a box within which where her naked boobs. The box had holes in the front so that spectators could stick their hands through and fondle. She told the spectators "This box is the cinema hall. My body is the screen. But this cinema is not for looking-it is for touching." Again, she tried to create a contradiction, by taking a very erotic part of the body and offering it the way she wanted to people. The fact that it was a dull common box and she was offering herself on a plate defused the situation from any eroticism.

In her 1969 performance Aktionshose:Genitalpanik (Action Pants: Genital Panic), she entered a porn cinema in Munich with her hair in disarray, wearing crotchless pants, and carrying a machine gun. Striding up and down the rows of punters, she brandished the weapon and challenged the male audience to engage with a 'real woman' instead of with images on a screen. Through these acts of artistic daring, she challenged the objectification of the female form by confronting voyeurs with a body that returned the gaze.

What I find particularly interesting about her work is the upfront, in-your-face aspect of it. She attempts to make the audience feel uncomfortable to obtain her desired reaction. Another side of her work I like is the uncompromising use of Taboo, something that usually garners a strong reaction in the artistic world, and of course the work of graphic design/ advertising.