The video Space Seeing/Space Hearing originates from Valie Export's performance in 1974 for the exhibition Art Remains Art: Aspect of International Art in the Early 1970s at the Cologne Kunstverein.

This performance follows earlier works on the perception of space that Export began in the early 1970s. In the series Body Configurations started in 1972, she questions in particular the adaptation of the body to its cultural environment and has already addressed the question of spatial perception. The minimalism of Space Seeing/Space Hearing ensues from a montage of sound and images following a quasi-mathematical logic. The result aims at a basic demonstration of the movement of the body and of sound in space.

In this public performance, Export is standing still in the middle of one of the museum's empty rooms. Four cameras are aimed at her, presenting still shots of her on four monitors. These monitors show six different images of the artist: on the left or the right of the screen, in the foreground or the background, in full-length or close-up. The video begins with a musical note produced by a synthesiser. Each position is characterised by a change – be it in volume, the interval of the repetition or the pitch of the sound. The end result is shown on a fifth monitor equipped with a split-screen device which is capable of synchronising both sound and image. While spectators present at the performance can observe Export as a fixed reference point in the white room, the visual combinations superposed with the sound combinations in the video give the impression that the artist is moving to the left and right, as well as back and forth.

Export describes this experience with the equation: “music + sculpture = melody”. Indeed, contingent on the combination and assembly of screened still shots, sound is transformed into a meditative melody. This melody is supposed to help the spectator experience a sense of movement with just the combination of sound and images.

Diane-Sophie Girin
Translated by Yin Ker