In true performance art fashion, this work by VALIE EXPORT is destined to challenge the moral compass of the more refined patrons of society...and likely make them question if this is art at all.

Well I can tell you right now it is, but then again, any excuse I can get to promote public nudity and general debauchery I am going to take. Needless to say, this performance piece by VALIE EXPORT does all of the above.

At the ripe age of twenty eight, VALIE EXPORT was ready to make a splash in the patriarchal art world, and what better way to do that she reasoned, than use her womanly wiles to the fullest. Armed with a box with a curtain across her chest and a whole lotta nothing underneath, VALIE EXPORT took to the streets and had strangers reach into the box and fondle her boobs. This is her take on the cinema, and the participants are her pervy audience.

This may all seem a little crazy but we need to remember who VALIE EXPORT is. She is someone who grew up in a conservative convent, married young, and then decided to do the ultimate 180 with her life. Honestly, what is more opposite than renaming yourself after a pack of cigarettes and forcing your naughty bits onto innocent bystanders? She was hell-bent on propagating feminism in a time and place where such ideas were so far from the mainstream, that her actions had to follow suit. To gain notoriety, she forced her way into the very male-dominated and aggressive group of artists known as the Vienna Actionists. These artists were creating the goriest, most unnerving performance art around with the goal of loosening oppressive Austrian society, so it only made sense that to fit in, VALIE EXPORT would have to take some pretty extreme measures to gain acceptance amongst this violent and macho group of artists.

VALIE EXPORT identifies this work as “the first genuine women’s film”. The way one experiences traditional cinema is very removed. To watch a movie, especially one that glorifies the female form, is one of the most passive voyeuristic things we do. With this work, VALIE EXPORT breaks down this wall of separation and forces proximity and intimacy with the female form. Some claim it aims to combat the fetishization of women, others argue it does the exact opposite.

If your reaction to this work is a negative one, I can tell you right now you are not alone. In response to the unveiling of this project, a local newspaper had a slightly more than tepid response to the work. Presumably responding out of fear and confusion, the reporter wrote, “We don’t have witches now, we live in a modern time, but if we want witches, we must take VALIE EXPORT and burn her! She lets people touch her breasts, and she says, 'celluloid you can burn but Valie Export you can’t.'” She loves this excerpt, claiming that it was the greatest campaign against her in Austria. She felt if she repulsed conservative stuffy Austrians, she was doing something right. Let the haters hate, it only seems to fuel VALIE EXPORT’s creative juices.