Valie

Why did Valie change her name?

• The name Export came from an Austrian cigarette brand,
• Which marketed as unique.
• That was not the reason for her inspiration.
• She transformed herself to a brand identity.
• She used her body as an an art for feminism in the postwar.

Anti-art

• Valie started to experiment with photography and she called it “expanded cinema.”
• She labeled her work as anti-art which became political to react against the establishment.
• She called her work “Media Aktionism” which means performing arts, media actionism.
• She argued that art can and should be a medium for women to develop a new image for themselves, defined for and by themselves.

Early Age

Who is Valie?

• Valie was born as Waltraud Lehner in May 17, 1940
• Later married as Waltraud Hollinger
• She reinvented herself as Valie Export in 1967
• She rejected both her father and former husband’s last name.
• She was born in Linz, Austria.
• Valie Export is a protagonist of a feminist, a pioneer of experimental film and cinema, body performances, etc.

• As a child Valie wanted to act
• Up to the age of fourteen she assisted a convent and felt really strong about her religion and God.
• At the age of eighteen, her boyfriend and her would switch their gender appearance for photographs.
• She worked in the film industry as an extra, a script girl, and an editor.

Valie

Export

Identity Transfer 1, 2, 3

Art piece

• Valie Exports saw it as a creative and a feminists matter since the media portrayed an image for women.
• She uses the same media society does
• In the other hand, she uses it as a potential tool for women's social advancement.
• In the late 1960’s the clothing for males and females merged, men wore tight trousers, heavy chains (jewelry), and let their hair grow long.

Feminism

What has she accomplished?

Some of her work

"Her artistic work includes video

installations, body performances,

expanded cinema, computer animations, photography, sculptures and publications covering contemporary arts."

She is now age 75 and living in Linz, Austria.

• Tapp- und Tast-Kino ("Tap and Touch Cinema") 1968-1971
• wore a "tiny movie theater" from her neck to her lower waist. She invited everyone to touch her body. She let people touch her and she tought that maybe society would think differently about women.

• Aktionshose:Genitalpanik (Action Pants: Genital Panic) 1968
• Export entered a art cinema in Munich, wearing crotchless pants, exposing her genitalia at face level. It was aimed at the passive role of women in cinema and confrontation of the private nature of sexuality.

Valie Exports thought was that this was a creative and a feminsist matter since the media portrayed an image for women. She uses the same media society does, in the other hand, she uses it as a potential tool for womens social advancement. Women were and still are represented in a represive and sexist way to society by media. In the late 1960’s the clothing for males and females merged, men wore tight trousers, heavy chains (jewelry), and let their hair grow long.

She used her work for political reasons not Art!

Reaction

Issues

• My initial reaction to this piece of artwork is feminism.
• It makes me think about the political movement that was going on in the 1960’s.
• When looking at the image, you feel that feminism is just shouting in the air.

Details of art piece

• Identity Transfer was created in Linz, Austria in 1968.
• During the 1960’s many social rights for women were created.
• The art piece is owned by the photography committee in MOCA.
• The selection for this piece is a photography, black and white, on paper.
• The medium of the art piece, would be ink.
• The dimensions are 954 x 707mm for support and 1006 x 738 x 36mm for the frame.
• The texture of this work of art is matte, and dull.
• The color harmonies and contrast in the composition of this art is black and white.

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• Nazi ideology advocated excluding women from political involvement.
• They were told, when having children they would fight for their families
• While men fought for for their nation
• They were confined only to children, church and kitchen.
• Contraception was discouraged for racially valuable women and abortion was forbidden legally.
• Meaning those seeking it would be sentenced to prison and also those preforming them in other word doctors.
• Abortion for those "undesirable" races were highly encouraged.
• Women were and still are represented in a repressive and sexist way to society by media.

Identity Transfer 1, 2, 3