/PETERWEI BEL Multimedialfeminist art

THCMASDREHER

EXPANDED CINEMA passer-6yaccepted the offer, the artist turned her head to the sideto keep track of the time, After the time was up, ln 1968,the year of its founding,the UndependentFilm Export looked at the persontouching her and indicated Center in Munichorganized the FrrstEuropean Meetrng of that the actionhad come to an end. Export subjugated lndependentFilmmakers. Birgit Hein writes',The necessary passers-byto a disciplineof time, which subordinatedthe publicity for the well vrsited crnema events was provrded sub.lectivesense of touch to an objectiveframework. by the spectacularpresentatrons of ValreExport's Tupp- Export circumventedthe taboo of visualsexual attraction und Tastfrlm(Grope and Touch )and Peter Weibel's in publicplaces. By publiclypresenting female body parts action 'Exit'.l naked,but not visuallyso, she correctedthe sexual projectionfields, which are establishedvisually, but not In Exit, Weibel projecteda film onto a tin foil screen,until tactily,6y massreproductions: spectacular'object-images' he interruptedthe presentation6y physicallythreatening ('irages-objets')3,which arousecuriosity, were not the audiencefrom the cinema'sstage, the site of the present,By meansof the tactile,Export circumvented presentation:Rocket bodiesinstead of motion pictures.2 restrictivecodes and then re-introducedthem 6y meansof With the expulsionfrom the cinemain Exit, Weibel turned the disciplineof time: restrictivecodes are, on a tactile voyeurismagainst its own premises:Aggression and level,considerably more threateningfor the body and curiosity coupledin a phallocraticsexuality which places one's senseof his or her own body than visualcoding, but itselfat the disposalof the feminine becameopposing also lesssubtle. qualitiesin the expulsionfrom the cinema. ln Tapp-und Tastkrno,Export placeda box over her head FEATURE to cover her exposedbreasts; the open front of the box was covered by a curtain.The actiontaking place on stage Beginningin 1976, Export and Weibel transform becameinvisible and tangible,as opposedto the visible, dönouementmodels of the featurefilm genre by meansof intangibleglimmer of the cinema.Export invitedpassers-by montagetechniques, dream sequences,and pictorialmedia to grope throughthe curtainfor 12 seconds.As soon as a in the pictorialmedium, to make statementsfrom a

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ValreEXPORT Tapp-und Tastkrno,l968 aus.Valre Export. Eine intermedtaleKunstlerrn. Wien l9BB feministstandpoint, which, untilthen, had been either rare women were read by Widl onto an audio-cassettebefore or impossiblein this genre. the performanceand playedover loudspeakerstogether ln a scenefrom the film UnsichtbareGegner (lnvisible with compositions6y PatriciaJunger. The texts Adversary),which Export and Weibel realizedtogether in demonstratedhow much the feministopposition is stilla 1976177,Anna and Peter communicatewith one another consequenceand therefore,although more negative,a both directlyand, simultaneously,by meansof monitors.4 mirror of patriarchalstructures. ln 1984,in Die Praxis der Liebe (The Practiceof Love), Computer graphicsin slidesand videossplit up digitalized Export filmsa monitor-quarrelbetween Judith and Dr. imagesfrom Widl's impersonationsof famouswomen in JosefFrischkoff. Only Judithis present.sBoth scenesare variousways: From the limitednumber of shotsof Widl's determinedby criseswithin a relationship.In both cases, performance,Muki Pakesch() and H.W, Pangratz the monitor-imageof the masculinepart becomes (slides)generated images, which rangedfrom independentof the actor; and in each case,the male reconstructionsof the socialrole of the women presented imageexplicates the founderingof the relationship. to allusions,to completelyfree combinationsof images. ln both of thesefeature films, reproductivemedia, such as The videoswere presentedbehind the actressin serial photographyand video, which are presentedin the film as sequenceson a portablemulti-monitor-wall, which covered part of the action,place'viewers of the film in the role of almostthe entire back wall. Four electronicallycoupled the observer,who observethe (observedand observing) projectorspresented slides next to and over eachother observersin the film as they observe.The observedand on the back wall of the room. observingfemale observers in the film becomefemale protagonistsfor viewers of both sexes:Just äs, in the film, INTERMEDIAL ALLEGORICAL PROCEDURES the actressattempts to orient herselfbetween the imaginary,the symbolicand the real, the viewer attempts The performanceStimmen aus dem lnnenraum to orient his or herselfbetween his or her own reconstructsthe avant-gardemethod of montagewith projections,the film world and the real circumstancesof theatricaland electronicmedia - media,which are older the presentation,and the projectionin the cinema. and younger than montage itself.Montage as a recombinationof decontextualizedset piecesleads to M U LTIM EDIA-PERFORMANCE AllegoricalProcedures6, to allusionsto world conditionsin a state of upheaval.The allegoricalin montageprocesses Stimmen aus dem lnnenraum (Voicesfrom the Interior) rangesfrom history in a state of d ecayTto a Vitally was produced as a commissionfor the Ars Electronicaand progressive history of humankinds:ruininge not only allows presentedin lgBBat the Brucknerhausin Linz.The 'medial that which has become staticto tumble down, it also structure'was realizedby Export and Weibel. Duringthe producesthe dynamicnecessary for change- without performance,Susanne Widl dressedup as UnicaZürn, constitutinga new conceptionof the world through the Mae West, Mary Shell"y,Augusta Ada Byron (Countessof contradictory relationshipof heterogeneouspartst]. In Lovelace)and Linda Lovelace.\^/idl worked with props Stimmen aus dem lnnenrauffi,Export and Weibel choose and gestures,which were characteristicfor the women suchcode-fragments of the feminine,which reveal beingpresented. Excerpts from documentsof the five themselvesas ruinsof collapsedpatriarchal conceptions of

Peter WEIBEL On Justifyingthe Hypothetical Nature of Art and the Non-ldenticalitywithin the Object World. lmage of the World of Language, 1992 CourtesyGalerie Tanja Grunert, Köln the world. Computer graphicsenergize the intercourse with the signsof decay: static contrasts between patriarchalsociety and futile femininecounter-movements become feministprocesses of transformation,a dialecticof transformer and transformed. ln Stimmen,an intermedialmontage is constitutedby the mutual referencebetween three levels: a.) A llvingbody (actress). b.) Masqueradeof the actress(a.) for a simulationof roles in real space.The roles refer to referencepoints in past reality:The past is re-enactedas the semblanceof a formerly livingbeing with the help of accessones. c.) Electronicimage simulation, in which signsare rnfinitely reproducibleand transformableand signoperations are reversible.The imagesimulation combines fragments from b.) with each other as well as with additionalelements. C.) receivesa functionthrough b.) that refers back to historicalhandicaps. Through the infinite,unlimrted possibilitiesof transformation,which c.) presentsin facets, the historicalframework of b.) is revealedas being limited and restrictedby pre-codings.

ANAGRAMS ln a text on the oerformance Stimmen aus oem lnnenraum,Weibel placesimage simulation in connection Valie EXPORT Die Praxrsder Lrebe, l9B4 aus: ValieExport. Einerntermediale Künstlerin, Wien l98B with the anagramsof UnicaZürntt: from the fountain- headsof one of the chosenwomen who struggleagainst for a feministnegation of the phallocraticpower that had their pre-conditionedroles - the only one to have put an previouslynegated them. abrupt end to her own life - Export and Weibel take In the unrestrictedelectronic generation of signs(..), self- possibilitiesfor an alternativeinterpretation of signs. referentialtransformations become possible beyond'binary Syllables,sounds and letters can be substrtutedin anagrams ambivalences'.The differencebetween the electronic without regard for their semantics:ln anagrams, generationof signs(..) and the theatricalsimulation of onomatopoeic expressionsand numerous other linguistic roles(b ) cannotbe describedas the divisionof a tricks, the word, the syllable and the sound strut, phallocraticstructure into binaryfeatures, but rather as 'binary emancipated from every semantic association, as a thing, the yet to be and alreadyarrived at solutionof which may be allegorically exploited.tz ambivalences'.Computer simulationthematicizes this Accordingto Weibel, with referenceto the dolls of Hans separationwith its spectrumfrom reconstructionsof social Bellmer,who was married to Zürn, the use of signs historyto free combinations. without semanticrestrictions is translatableinto an anagrammaticismof the bodyt3. The double role of POTLATCH Bellmer'sdolls - of beingsign-like and real simultaneously, and thus presentingas dead bodies an amalgamationof The concept'sign-function' stands for a limitednumber of sign-formsand sign-bearers- which allowsthem to possibleways of coordinatingsigns with meaning(poetic, become ideal bearersof wishful phantasies,is, however, emotive, referential,imperative, phatic and meta-linguistic), not reoeated in the oerformance.Bellmer's doll mechanics while the concept'code' standsfor an accumulationof is divided in two levels:in the masquerade(b.) and the signs,which are coordinatedwith meanings.The signs imagesimulation of body set pieces(c.), and both levels receivetheir meaningand their classificationas elementsof are created with and refer to a real body, to a female a code throughuse. protagonist(u ). By playingthrough a pluralityof The anagrammaticismin Stimmen contradictsfunctional exemplaryfemale roles (b.), she runs up againstthe linguisticinterpretations. In accordancewith Jean border of the transgressionof establishedrole-norms, Baudrillard'slinguistic criticism, the typologyof sign- while the imagesimulation (c.) has crossedthese borders. functionsitself may be understoodas an additionalgrouP The 'phallicsignificant' is, accordingto JacquesLacan, the of signs,as one among infinitelynumerous codes, instead sourceof divisionson this side of and beyonda borderra, of as a fundamentallinguistic principle. Baudrillard does not whereby both sidesare mirrors of each other. Export and acceptthe way in which RomanJakobson and JÜrgen Weibel understanddivisions in gender-specificoppositional Habermasattempt to re-semanticize the sign-functionof pairs,in analogyto Lacan,as 'binary ambivalences'- poetic de-semantizationl6by integratingit as a specialcase ambivalentbecause the binary opposition of masculine- into a group with semanticizing sign-functions.lT This would femininerefers to a masculinepower which produces domesticatethe power of self-referentialsign-forms, which dichotomization.lsThe fates of the women (b.), burstsopen semantizationprocesses: Le poötrqueest reconstructedby Widl with theatricalmeans, stand today irröductible au mode de signifrcatron,qui n'est que le mode to l./ *ss-- ' \*;'1""--1r-.-a "'-;""*"{ i?,!a

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ValieEXPORT - PeterWEIBEL Stimmenaus dem lnnenraum,l9BB SusanneWidl (links)mit Bildnissenvon, und (rechts) als, Unica Zürn, Ada Lovelace, LindaLovelace, Mae West, MaryShelley Photo CourtesyBrucknerhaus, Linz

de productiondes valeursde langage.C'est pourquoiil est l5 V, EXPORT and P. WEIBEL, Die Zweiheit der Natur, in: Computerkulturtage irröductibleä la linguistique,qui est la sciencede ce mode Lrnz, ORF-Videonale86, ORF Landesstudro,Linz 1986, pp.aTff. (exhibrtron catalogue) de production... Le poÖtique,c'est la restitutionde l6 Poetic signsrefer to therr sign-form,tnstead of to their meanrng. IB |'öchange sym boliq ue au coeur möme des mots. l7 R. JAKOBSON, Lrngursticsand Poetics, in: T.A. SEBEOK,Styie rn Language, Toute forme de la valeur (objet, marchandiseou srgne) Cambridge, Mass./London 1960, pp.350 377; J. HABERMAS, Der philosophrsche Dskurs der Moderne: zwolf Vorlesungen, a.M. 1985, pp.235,238 doit ötre niöe pour inaugurerl'öchange symbolique.te lB BAUDRILLARD, see note 14, pp.289,298 in responseto: F. SAUSSURE, In the 'symbolicexchange' without 'valueproductiofl', Cahiers d'anagrammes,published in: J. STAROBINSKI,Les mots sous /es mots, Paris 197| Baudrillardsees a way out of the attributionof meaning. l9 J. BAUDRILLARD, Pour une crittque de I'economie polrtque du sgne, Parrs The Lettristsand the Situationists- borrowingfrom the 1972, o l47 Potlatchof the North American Indians- have also 20 The word'potlatch'( can be traced back to the Chrnook w'ord'potshatl', which means 'to give away . The Indiansof the Amerrcan North-West Coast developeda model of value-freeexchange: the appeasethe gods through'potlatch'and secure therr socralposrtton through grfts. consumptionof the materialand work valuesby the (H. LANG, Kulturgeschichteder lndtaner Nordamerrkas,Gottrngen l99l, pp.32| 'Potlatch', Potlatch, Neue No. I (No. bearer of the signin symbolicgifts is presentedas the 324',cf . G. DEBORD, Le röle de in'. Serie, 30)i | 959, a periodicalof the Lettristic International).In 1967, Raoul Vaneigem contrapositionof capitalisticvalue production(utility and wrote, rn the senseof Marcel Mauss' ideal of a non recrprocal,or rather asymmetrrcalextravagance (M. MAUSS, Fssarsur le don, quoted rn: G. BATAILLE, exchangevalu.).20 The appropriation('dötournement') of 'Potlatch',.vrthout Oeuvres Complätes, Paris 1971, Vol. l, p.310): What w'onderful elementsfrom a value-producingsociety as propagated6y counter-consideration the surplus soctety wtll gtve Crth to. whether rt wants to or the Lettristsand the Situationistshas been extendedby not, when the effusivenessof the younger generation finally drscovers pure gtvtng. (R. VANEIGEY, Handbuch der Lebenskunstfur dte JungenGeneratronen, Parrs Export and Weibel in Vorcesto includethe appropriation 'rn 1977, p.75; cf. Claude Lövr-Strauss'rnterpretatron of the exchangeof wine of signsfor a self-referential,value-free transformation in restaurantsin Southern France rn expressronsof socralgrfts'tC. LEVI STRAUSS, computer-generatedimages. In the exchangeof Strukturale Anthropologie, Vol. l, Frankfurt a.M. 1991, pp.364ff.i. In 1961. paintingsfronr Dubuffet, Asger immateriallyconveyed signs, there is no waste of material Vanergemsuggested to the Srtuationrsts,that iean Jorn, Willem De Kooning, Pablo Prcasso,and others should be made availableto 'in and work values,since the productionof sign-bearersis be destroyed a sensationalPotlatch (R. ORTN, Phantom Avantgarde..., omitted. But the presenceof sublectsthat communicate Hamburg 1990, p.256). Exchangewrthout value production and anagrammatrcrsm become for Baudrrllard(pp.295ff.) mutually rllumrnatrrtgaspects. with one another is, however, also no longera prerequisitefor symbolicexchange'.

Translation from the German by G6rard A. Goodrow and Andreas Fritsch, Cologne. I B. HEIN, Film trn Underground: Von seinenAnfangen brs zum Unabhängtgen Kino. Frankfurt a.M,i BerlrniWren 197| , p l43 2 HEIN, see note l, p.157 3 G. DEBORD, La soctetedu spectacle.Parrs 1967, p.l4,rl5 4 For more on the plot, see: A. PRANNER, Valre Export: Ernemulttmedrale Kunstlertn,Wren l9BB pp | | I l2l 5 For rnore on the plot, see' G.J. LISCHKA (ed.1, Alles und noch vrel mehr-, Bern 1985, p BB2 6 H.D.B. BUCHLOH, AllegortcalProcedures, rn:ArtforLtm, Sept. 1982, pp.a3 56 7 W. BENJAMIN, Ursprung des deutschen Trauersptels,Frankfurt a.M 1978, pp l55ff. B Benlamin(see note 7, p.144) quotes Gorres from F. CREUZER, Symbolrk und Mythologte der alten Völker, besonders der Grrechen, Part l, Leipzrg/Darmstadt lBl9, p l47ff, 9 B. BROCK, Asthettk gegen erzwungene Unmittelbarkert...,Cologne 1986, pp 176 l87; V. EXPORT, Das Realeund sernDouble: der Korper, Bern l9B7 Valie EXPCRT (Waltraut Höllinger, 1940,Linz, ) livesand works o.35 nt rh--n Milwaukee/Wisconsin.Since l9B9 Professorfor Film and l0 P. BURGER, Theorre der Avantgarde, Frankfurt a.M. 1974, p. ll0 in and I I U. ZÜRN Gesamtausgabe, Volume | : Anagramme, Berlrn lgBB; P. WEIBE-, Video at the Universityof Wisconsin. Stimmen aus dem lnnenraum. tn: Ars Electrontca; Kunst der Szene, Brucknerhaus Peter WEIBEL (" 1945,Odessa) is Director of the Institutefor New Lrnz I98B, pp.136 l48 (exhrbitroncatalogue): also: Export, pp.l2ff . in Frankfurta.M, since 1991.He will be the l2 BENjAMIN, see note 7, p. l83 Media at the Stadelschule l3 \^/E|BEL,see note | | , p. 137 Commissionerof the Austrian Pavilionat the Biennialof Venice 1993. l4 EXPORT, see note 9, p.l9; LACAN. Ecrits //, Parrs 1971, pp.6772, 103 tl5; J. Thomas DREHER('1957) is an art critrcand livesin Munich. cf. j. BAUDRILLARD, L'öchangesymbohque et la mort, Parrs 1976, pp.l55-160 20