VALIE EXPORT & Peter Weibel’s Aus der Mappe der Hundigkeit was done in Vienna in 1968. VALIE EXPORT focused especially on feminist issues claiming space and recognition in an area that was still dominated like that of the Wiener Aktionisten, whose practice often included the objectification of women. In EXPORT & Weibel’s work she holds the leash connected to his neck, walking around historic city center of Vienna, being documented by a camera and is mostly recognized for these still photographs. The title derives from a magazine printed by the Red Cross in Austria, which focused on humanitarian issues.

In my version, I will focus on the internal discussion of men’s own view on hegemonic masculinity and the hierarchical ladder in society. My work will consist of several men. There is one male in the middle. In his hand he holds a bunch of ropes. Each rope is connected to another male who is crawling on his knees and hands. The crawling men spread out from the man holding the ropes. Seeing it from above it forms an image of a dandelion. They are the seeds strapped to the stem. The rest of the leashes in the hand of the man holding them, are dragged behind him, as the flower’s stem. This will be done in other variations.

Still documentation from Portfolio of Dandelion
March 22, 2017 in Bergen, Norway
Performers: Elias Björn, Hans Christian van Nijkerk, Jone Torheim Slettebak and Matuh Edison Hango. Photographers: Dimitri Thomas-Komissarov, Christian Alexander Marx and Andreas Dyrdal.

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