Catalogue > At random

At the 2007 Venice Biennale, I did a 12-minute performance in the Arsenale that showed the vocal folds of my throat while I was speaking. It was called “the voice as performance, act and body”. After a camera was inserted through my nose, the image was shown on large monitors so that you could see my vocal folds in the process of speaking. It was my own text that I read in German, a poetic text about the origin of language. “What is the anatomy of language?” I asked. My answer was just as much a body performance as any of my earlier works. Whenever we think of the body as a vessel for artistic ideas, we somehow always focus on the surface of the body. But the truth is that there is no surface of the body independent of its interior. It’s obvious that the outside of the body is always connected to the inside, to thought processes and to an internal anatomy. (VALIE EXPORT)

VALIE EXPORT, Prof. Dr. h.c.media and performance artist, filmmaker born in Linz, lives and works in Vienna VALIE EXPORT’s artistic work comprises: video environments, digital photography, installation, body performances, feature films, experimental films, documentaries, Expanded Cinema, conceptual photography, body-material interactions, Persona Performances, laser installations, objects, sculptures, texts on contemporary art history and feminism. VALIE EXPORT is one of the most important pioneers on conceptual media art, performance and film. 1967 invention of her artist name VALIE EXPORT: an artistic concept and logo to be written in capital letters only VALIE EXPORT takes part at the documenta 12 2007, and documenta 6, 1977, in Kassel 1985 nomination of EXPORT's feature film “Die Praxis der Liebe”, screenplay and direction, for the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival Since 1975 curatorial projects, international symposiums, exhibitions and film programmes Her works are in international collections like Centro Pompidou, Paris, Tate Modern, London, Reine Sophia, Madrid, MOMA, New York, MOCA, Los Angeles ect. Since 1968 participation in international exhibitions, for example: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Venice Biennale, Venezia; documenta, Kassel; MoCA, Los Angeles; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; MUMOK, Vienna; Generali Foundation, Vienna; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles; Tate Modern, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; Metropolitan Museum, New York; ars electronica, Linz/Austria. Screenings at international film and video festivals, for example London Underground Film Festival; London International Film Festival; Filmex, Los Angeles; Berlin International Film Festival as well as film festivals in Cannes, Montréal, Vancouver, San Francisco, Locarno, Hongkong, Sydney, New York, etc.