VALIE EXPORT Vertikal Gel, 1976
A pioneer in photography, video, installation and performance art, with a career spanning five decades, VALIE EXPORT (b. 1940) has produced one of the most influential bodies of feminist art in the post-war period. EXPORT’s groundbreaking works introduced a new form of radical, embodied feminism to Europe, examining the politics of the body in relation to its environment, culture and society.
In 1972 EXPORT began her most significant series of early photographic experiments, the Body Configurations, in which she uses her own body to visualise the internal accommodations made in response to nature, architecture and culture. For these works, EXPORT positions herself in the urban landscape, her body curved to conform to its shape. The artist traces microstructures of the city with her body, drawing attention to the individual’s relationship with the built environment and the ways in which architectural and, by extension, societal spaces constrain the self.
In 2022 VALIE EXPORT was honoured with the prestigious Max Beckmann Prize of the City of Frankfurt for lifetime achievement. Her works are part of renowned museum collections around the world and, most recently, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne acquired several historic works by the artist. The Albertina Museum in Vienna will show a major retrospective of EXPORT’s works in their main exhibition space, opening June 2023.
