Valie Export obituary

Valie Export, the Austrian artist who redefined feminist expression through performance and media, has died at 85. Born Waltraud Lehner in Linz during World War II, she adopted the name Valie Export in 1967—a blend of her nickname and the *Smart Export* cigarette brand—to assert independence. Her work, rooted in Viennese Actionism, dismantled gendered norms by using her body as a tool for social critique, from *Touch and Grope Cinema* (1968), where she invited strangers to touch her exposed chest on Munich streets, to *Action Pants: Genital Panic* (1969), where she walked through crowds in modified jeans, defying erotic conventions. Export’s provocations extended beyond shock value. In *Adjunct Dislocations* (1973), she strapped cameras to her body to capture multiple perspectives, while her 1970 self-portrait *Valie Export – Smart Export* featured a cigarette pack labeled ‘Made in Austria’ with her face and the motto *semper et ubique*—‘always and everywhere.’ These works rejected traditional patronymics and claimed public space for women’s autonomy. Her 1970 manifesto *Women’s Art* declared art a ‘means of social struggle,’ arguing that female artists must liberate culture from ‘masculine values.’ Raised in a convent and expelled multiple times, Export turned to photography at 14 and later studied textile design in Vienna. Her 1958 marriage and early motherhood ended abruptly when she left her daughter with family to pursue art, aligning with the radical Viennese Actionism movement. Though she shared its anti-authoritarian stance, she criticized its objectification of women, shifting focus to their agency. By 1975, she curated *Magna*, an exhibition centering female artists, addressing their historical erasure. Export’s legacy lies in her fusion of activism and art. Whether through fly-posting Hassmann’s *Action Pants* photographs in Vienna or staging *Genital Panic*—where she posed with a machine gun—her work exposed power dynamics. Her death marks the end of an era for feminist art, leaving behind a body of work that demanded visibility for women’s bodies and voices in culture.