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Valie Export — Action Pants: Genital Panic
Valie Export

Action Pants: Genital Panic

A striking black-and-white photograph documents Export's provocative 1969 performance in which she walked through a Munich cinema wearing crotchless pants and carrying a machine gun, directly confronting audiences with unmediated female sexuality. The silver gelatin print captures Export in a powerful, wide-legged stance, her expression intense and confrontational as she gazes directly into the camera. The work challenges the passive objectification of women in cinema and mass media, reclaiming the female body as a site of agency and political resistance.

Medium
silver gelatin print

🔨 Auction Lot

Contemporary Art Day Sale

February 15, 2013

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About this work

Valie Export, Action Pants: Genital Panic

A striking black-and-white photograph documents Export's provocative 1969 performance in which she walked through a Munich cinema wearing crotchless pants and carrying a machine gun, directly confronting audiences with unmediated female sexuality. The silver gelatin print captures Export in a powerful, wide-legged stance, her expression intense and confrontational as she gazes directly into the camera. The work challenges the passive objectification of women in cinema and mass media, reclaiming the female body as a site of agency and political resistance.

Medium
silver gelatin print
Seen at
Phillips, New York, London, Hong Kong

Related themes

Austrian, Body, Performance Art, Silver Gelatin Print, Provocative, Black and White, Contemporary

More works by Valie Export