Valie Export
dal 14/10/2010 al 29/1/2011
Segnalato da
14/10/2010
Valie Export
Center for Contemporary Art Belvedere Wien, Wien
Time and Countertime. The Belvedere and the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz are compiling a comprehensive exhibition on one of Austria's internationally most renowned media artists. The show focuses on Export's conceptual approach, which always starts out from the human body and revolves around the communicative and cultural codifications related to it.
Curator Angelika Nollert
“A lying truth. Feedback feed. A recording is made of melting ice, and then played back in reverse
on the monitor. The end of the recording = the beginning. Chunks of time. Flow of time. Time
reversal. Time repetition. Time dissolution. Tension: time present / future / past.”
From VALIE EXPORT’s concept for the video-sculpture ZEIT und GEGENZEIT (TIME and COUNTERTIME) (1973)
To pay tribute to the importance and topical relevance of VALIE EXPORT’s art, the Belvedere and
the LENTOS are holding extensive solo shows at two locations: Vienna, where the artist lives and
works, and Linz where she was born.
VALIE EXPORT is regarded as one of the most important pioneers of media art. In over four
decades she has achieved a large and consistent oeuvre encompassing performance, action,
photography, film, “expanded cinema”, sculpture, text, and media installation.
VALIE EXPORT’s works focus almost exclusively on critically addressing social and political
subjects. They draw attention to constraints, violence, and aggression that cause physical
and mental suffering. EXPORT was both celebrated and vehemently criticized for her feminist
orientation and her tireless fight for an unbiased and gender-neutral assessment of themes
addressed by the media. Works from her revolutionary early work like the Tapp- und Tastkino
(Touch Cinema), Aktionshose Genitalpanik (Action Pants: Genital Panic), and BODY SIGN ACTION,
are long-established icons of art history. It is EXPORT’s great achievement that she continuously
finds topical themes for her chosen subjects and new, fitting modes of expression in great number
and diversity.
The show focuses on VALIE EXPORT’s conceptual approach, which always starts out from the
human body and revolves around the communicative and cultural codifications related to it. It
is intentionally not chronological and, in keeping with the idea of “Countertime”, the selected
works concentrate on the last twenty years, which include the large installations. Themes
emerge from these works that refer to earlier artworks, demonstrating either a formal affinity or
a continuation in terms of content. At the Belvedere the main focus is performative installations,
including KALASHNIKOV (2007) and Fragmente der Bilder einer Berührung (Fragments of Contact)
(1994/2010), while the LENTOS is showing works with an emphasis on action, language, film,
and film spaces that correspond with each other. For the Belvedere, EXPORT also created a new
work: Die Doppelgängerin. This is a ca. 4.5-meter-high aluminium sculpture, which is exhibited in
the Belvedere garden.
These simultaneous shows provide the opportunity to explore the artist’s entire oeuvre – they
complement each other but can also be appreciated individually. A selection of exhibits will be
presented at Museion – Museum für moderne und zeitgenössische Kunst Bozen from 19 February
to 1 May 2011.
Angelika Nollert curated the presentations. She is director of the Neue Museum in Nuremberg
and her exhibitions to date include solo shows of the artists Thomas Hirschhorn, Daniel Buren,
Maria Eichhorn, Andreas Siekmann, Manfred Pernice, and Elke Krystufek.
VALIE EXPORT is one of the pioneers of conceptual art, whether in media, performance or film.
1940 born in Linz
1967 invention of the artist name VALIE EXPORT: an artistic concept and logo
lives and works in Vienna
Catalogue
VALIE EXPORT. Time and Countertime
Publisher Agnes Husslein-Arco, Angelika Nollert and Stella Rollig
Texts by Sabeth Buchmann, Yilmaz Dziewior, Elke Krasny, Hanne Lorek,
Maren Lübbke-Tidow, Angelika Nollert, Letizia Ragaglia, Brigitte Reutner,
Johanna Schwanberg and Berta Sichel. Introduction by Agnes Husslein-Arco
and Stella Rollig.
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, 2010, 304 pages
ISBN: 978-3-86560-874-1 (German/English)
Image: VALIE EXPORT, Action pants, 1969 © VBK, Vienna 2010. Photo on canvas 135 x 100 cm. Courtesy Charim Galerie, Vienna
Photo: Peter Hassmann © VBK, Vienna 2010
Press information
Lena Maurer Head of Press T +43 1 79557-178 F +43 1 79557-121 presse@belvedere.at
Press conference: Friday, 15 October 2010, 10 am
Lower Belvedere
A-1030 Vienna, Rennweg 6
Opening hours Daily 10 am to 6 pm, Wednesday 10 am to 9 pm
Admission
€ 9,50 Lower Belvedere
€ 12 Lower Belvedere and LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz
€ 15,50 Upper and Lower Belvedere and LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz