Artistic Labour of the Body
Zeitgenössische Kunst Theorie Literatur Performance Kunst Präsentation Diskussion
Book Presentation
Rose-Anne Gush examines VALIE EXPORT’s and Elfriede Jelinek’s use of the body and psyche as artistic material to explore Adorno’s concept of artistic labour. By deploying the body as artistic material, their works challenge women’s reduction to reproductive function or sexual object, articulating a feminism beyond „innocence“.
Gush demonstrates how their art critiqued postwar Austria’s culture of disavowal, where unprocessed legacies of Nazism perpetuated Austria’s victimhood myth, while also exploring the complex identifications within this critique. The book reframes postwar artistic practices that revealed the body as both a site of patriarchalcapitalist violence and of resistance.
Rose-Anne Gush, art theorist, historian, IZK, TU Graz
Alexi Kukuljevic, philosopher, artist, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Sophia Rohwetter, art historian, theorist, University of Vienna
Jenni Tischer, artist, University of Applied Arts Vienna / Berlin
Rose-Anne Gush, Artistic Labour of the Body, Leiden / Boston: Brill 2026
In cooperation with IZK – Institute for Contemporary Art, TU Graz.