Valie Export and the feminist media performance legacy
Published on 06/18/2026 at 22:50 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael MĂĽller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Valie Export is a central figure of feminist performance and media art in the German-speaking world. Her actions around the female body, public space and mass media from the late 1960s onward have become reference points in museums and academic discourse.
Key awards and institutional recognition
Valie Export received the Austrian State Prize for Visual Arts in 1995, marking a decisive recognition of her contribution to contemporary art in her home country as documented by the Austrian cultural authorities.
She was honored with the Oskar Kokoschka Prize in 2000, one of Austria’s most prestigious art awards, which acknowledged her pioneering role in expanding the definition of sculpture and performance into the realm of media and public interventions.
Award history in the feminist context
Her early and often confrontational works, including actions in Vienna’s streets and cinemas, were initially received as attacks on social norms but later became key case studies for feminist art history, as emphasized in various museum retrospectives and catalog essays.
The trajectory from contested performances to repeated state honors and international prizes encapsulates how feminist and media-critical practices moved from the margins into the institutional center during the late 20th century.
All news and background on Valie Export
Readers can follow how museums, critics and historians continue to reassess Valie Export’s performances, films and installations in relation to feminist theory and media history.
The core of Export’s practice
Valie Export’s practice spans performance, experimental film, photography and installation, often focusing on the female body as a contested site shaped by media images, Catholic conservatism and everyday power structures in postwar Austria.
Works such as the street action Tapp und Tastkino and later media installations systematically questioned how spectatorship, desire and control are embedded in cinematic and televisual apparatuses, rather than treating the body as a passive object.
Where the artist stands now
Valie Export remains a benchmark reference in discussions of feminist media art, with her historical performances and films continuing to circulate through museum exhibitions, retrospectives and study programs worldwide.
Key facts on Valie Export
- Artist: Valie Export
- Medium / Genre: Performance, film and media art
- Born: 1940, Linz, Austria
- Place(s) of practice: Vienna
- Active since: 1960s
- Key work groups: Tapp und Tastkino, Aktionshose: Genitalpanik, Expanded cinema works, Media installations
- Current/last exhibition: Retrospective and collection presentations of Tapp und Tastkino and related works in major European museums in recent years
- Major collections: Tate (London), MoMA (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Vienna)
- Awards: Austrian State Prize for Visual Arts (1995), Oskar Kokoschka Prize (2000)
- Next date: currently no announced date in the 30-day window
Frequently asked questions about Valie Export
Which awards has Valie Export received?
Valie Export has been honored with major Austrian distinctions, including the Austrian State Prize for Visual Arts in 1995 and the Oskar Kokoschka Prize in 2000, underlining her pioneering role in feminist media art.
Where can works by Valie Export be seen?
Important works by Valie Export are held in public collections such as Tate in London, MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, appearing regularly in collection displays and thematic exhibitions.
What themes define Valie Export’s artistic practice?
Her practice focuses on the representation of the female body, the critique of mass media, and the negotiation of power relations in public space, often through confrontational performances, experimental films and media installations.
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