Valie Export and Carolee Schneemann on Photography, Identity, and Performance

In a 2012 interview for art press 2, Sophie Delpeux spoke with Valie Export and Carolee Schneemann about the role of photography in their work. Schneemann discussed how photographers captured her performances, noting that she never commissioned documentation but relied on photographers to capture desired images in the heat of action. Export described her series "Valie Export – Smart Export" as engaging with social context and materiality, citing Axel Müller's "Gaze and Image." Both artists used photography not just to document but to construct and deconstruct identity. Export gave precise instructions to photographers, often requiring frontal shots, while Schneemann preferred to be both in front of and behind the camera, as in her film "Fuses" (1964-1967). Export explored multiple identities through her photographs, while Schneemann used various cameras for projects like "Kitch's Last Meal" (1973-1978) and "Infinity Kisses I" (1981-1987). Export referenced cybernetician Heinz von Foerster, who argued reality is a human invention, and architect Thom Mayne, who said "we all live in fictions." The interview also touched on Export's concept of "expanded cinema" and her use of other bodies in "Body Configurations."