Experienced as a gesamtkunstwerk, the sculpture and photographic works are demonstrative of the multi-disciplinary nature of EXPORT's 'Expanded Cinema' practice and emblematic of her iconic use of her body as an artistic medium, positioning her as one of the earliest performance artists alongside Joseph Beuys and Allan Kaprow. The sexually-charged Venice Biennale installation employs a combination of investigative photography, sculpture and novel image-making techniques, challenging audiences by examining the politics of the body, eroticism, the male gaze and liberation. Simultaneously exploring the physical, urban fabric of her environments and the metaphysical structures of the behaviours they incite, EXPORT's practice not only pre-empted the radical performances of the self by (female) American artists at the turn of the 21st century, but the proliferation of discourses concerning imposed behaviours and identities in society today. In the wake of the digital revolution, the boundaries

between the real and the virtual and their socio-cultural impact have sparked continued debate, and VALIE EXPORT's early explorations into the effects of such boundaries position her as an artist ahead of her time. Emblematic of an oeuvre built on bold experimentation and provocation, this exhibition will reposition EXPORT's interrogations into 'the drama of human self-realisation' within the context of the present cultural climate. 

The body as canvas on which the society arranges its daily slap stick, making man its showman. In this sense my artistic self-representation is also the representation of society. In the same sense the discourse with my body as venue of sexual, social, emotional and other signals, which in society finds its expression in a formalised body language, always implies a discussion with society and calling-in-doubt of society,because the signal- and information-bearing function of the body includes not only the personal but also the societal code.  –  VALIE EXPORT, 1980