May 14, 2026, 7:16 p.mMay 14, 2026, 7:16 p.m
The world-famous media and performance artist, filmmaker and feminist theorist Valie Export died in Vienna on Thursday, a few days before her 86th birthday. The Valie Export Foundation announced this to the APA news agency.
Valie Export has died.Image: IMAGO / SKATA
Born on May 17, 1940 in Linz as Waltraud Lehner, Valie Export became, under her stage name, probably the best-known and most influential living artist in Austria and influenced generations of artists.
“We mourn the loss of an outstanding artist, an extraordinary personality and a special person,” the foundation said in a statement. «Valie Export is one of the most important artists of the post-war period. She has been one of the most influential voices of the feminist avant-garde in Europe since the late 1960s.”
The focus of her work is therefore the critical examination of the social perception and standardization of the female body. “She fearlessly and uncompromisingly looks at intimate, taboo or socially repressed content.”
Her “Tapp and Touch Cinema” (1968) and her “Action Pants: Genital Panic” became iconic works of performance art. She also created groundbreaking works on expanded cinema as well as feature films such as “Invisible Opponents” (1976), “Praxis der Liebe” (1985) and “Syntagma” (1983). She has been honored with exhibitions and awards around the world. Only the Grand Austrian State Prize was never awarded to her. (hkl/sda/apa)