18 Sept 2026 | Structure, Bodies, Rebellion

Avantgarde Now! and Then! sixpackfilm from Vienna

Legend has it that by the end of the premiere of ARNULF RAINER, not a single person was left in the auditorium. Peter Kubelka’s film is now regarded as one of the classics of structural cinema. The witty film and media miniatures by Ernst Schmidt Jr. and Peter Weibel play with the audience and call into question the very apparatus within which they take place. Working with the (naked) body is a prominent stylistic element in the visual arts of Austrian (post-war) history; the Viennese Actionists were particularly influential – Günter Brus, who uses his own body, the most lasting and interesting position within this group. With their feminist perspective on self-empowerment, VALIE EXPORT, Mara Mattuschka, Linda Christanell, Ashley Hans Scheirl and Ursula Pürrer have expanded and reinterpreted Viennese Actionism. Their frequent use of their own bodies forms the terrain on which great pleasure, but also great pain, is experienced. Moucle Blackout and Maria Lassnig explore the not always congruent interplay between women and men. All of these films explore sensory dimensions of cinema, whilst also serving as political tools to rebel against traditional values. (Dietmar Schwärzler)