Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery Mourns VALIE EXPORT, Dies at 85
The Facts
The Thaddaeus Ropac gallery announced the death of Austrian artist VALIE EXPORT on July 24, 2026. EXPORT died on May 14, 2026, at the age of 85. The gallery published a tribute written by Michael Loebenstein, director of the Österreichisches Filmmuseum in Vienna, reflecting on her legacy. Loebenstein recalled the 2021 retrospective of EXPORT's film work at the Filmmuseum, noting that young audiences responded with urgency to her confrontational works addressing gender-based violence and oppression, originally created in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Signal
EXPORT was a pioneering figure in expanded cinema, performance art, and feminist critique. Her practice blurred boundaries between film, street action, photography, video, and broadcasting. She famously walked Munich streets with a miniature cinema strapped to her chest in "TAPP und TASTKINO" (1968) and inserted an endoscopic camera into her body to transmit a live image of her glottis at the 2007 Venice Biennale. Her death marks the loss of a radical artist whose work remains urgent for contemporary audiences confronting new forms of fascism and hostility toward women and gender-nonconforming people.
- Artists: Valie Export
- People: Michael Loebenstein
- Galleries: Thaddaeus Ropac
- Museums: Österreichisches Filmmuseum
- Locations: Vienna, Munich, Venice
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