Austrian artist Valie Export, a pioneering feminist performance and media artist, died on May 14, three days before her 86th birthday. Her death was confirmed by Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery. Export, born Waltraud Lehner in 1940, rejected traditional domestic roles and adopted her iconic all-uppercase name from a cigarette brand. She created guerrilla-style performances and films that directly confronted the male gaze and patriarchal society, often using her own body as a medium. Key works include “Genital Panic” (1968), in which she walked through a Munich cinema in crotchless pants, and “Tapp und Tastkino (Tap and Touch Cinema)” (1968), where she invited strangers to touch her bare breasts through a stage strapped to her chest.
Export's work matters because she fundamentally challenged how women's bodies are viewed and controlled in art and society, coining the term “Feminist Actionist” to distinguish her practice from the male-dominated Viennese Actionism movement. Her radical, confrontational approach bypassed institutional restrictions and influenced generations of feminist artists. As noted by Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova, Export changed the way people speak and perceive reality, making her a crucial figure in the history of feminist art and performance art worldwide.