Valie Export: Time and Countertime

by Stella Rollig (Preface), Valie Export (Artist), Agnes Husslein-Arco (Foreword)

Having quickly tired of life as an editor and extra in the Austrian film industry, in 1967 Waltraud Hollinger changed her name to Valie Export and plunged into the violent and often blood-soaked world of Viennese performance art and the extremist "Actions" of Hermann Nitsch, Günter Brus, Otto Mühl and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. Like them, Export subjected her body to pain, but where their work was inevitably drawn towards a religious idea of catharsis, Export politicized the inscription of women's bodies in terms of media representation, declaring her project as explicitly feminist. Export soon turned to video to record her performances and began to remove her person from her work, as in her now-famous 1971 video "Facing a Family." Today, across more than four decades of activity, Export has built a large and rigorous oeuvre comprising performance, photography, film and media installations. This volume surveys her career.

Genres: Art

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of an odd catalog, deliberately avoiding EXPORT's most canonical works. I appreciate the impulse, but it does seem like we haven't necessarily been oversaturated with EXPORT content to the point that it's a move that's been demanded in order to shake up engagement with her work.

[Gary Norris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was able to see the Belvedere's Valie Export retrospective when I visited Vienna this winter. It was a wonder to see several installations and films. The essays in the book are sharp and the documentation of Export's work looks good. Nothing can really replace beeing there. But it's a nice addition to my library.