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Gedichte

Gedichte
/1
    • Poems
    • Gedichte
  • 1966-
  • video, b&w, sound
  • 7min, 48sec
This video presents as a text performance twelve poems VALIE EXPORT wrote over the course of ten years whitout planning to publish them. Frontally facing the camera, which zooms in to show only her upper body and face, EXPORT recites her texts in a sober monotone. Among them are the well-known poem "1966" about the liberation of the poetic "I" from familial and social constraints in order to find an identity. Parallels are the artist's own life become evident. Other poems, such as "Metallene Gesten" ("Metal Gestures"), "In Zäsur" ("In Caesura") and "Ineinandergeronnene Zeit" ("Time Congealed Itself"), revolve around themes including fear, pain, body language and loneliness. This small complex of poetic works shows what a central role spoken and written language plays in EXPORT's oeuvre as dialogic extension of body language or pictoral expression. Jo.S.