Energie Austausch

»Energie Austausch« [Energy exchange] was performed in November 1971 by Valie Export and Erika Mies as Expanded Cinema, or rather body heat exchange performance in Amsterdam. One of the two women has water thrown over her. The dry woman and the wet woman rub each other’s skin on stage in front of a screen until both are dry. In contrast to most of the performances of that time, Weibel does not act on stage himself during the performance, but assigns its realization to the two performers. He thus anticipates the genre of »delegated performance« that Gabriele Mackert introtuced in 2002 and Claire Bishop in 2012 for Santiago Serra’s works (since ca. 2000). As a »film without film« (Weibel), »Energie Austausch« is one of the artist’s early works in which he deals with the conventions of the classic film system – in this case the exposure of the female body as a voyeuristic object.