Asemie or the Inability Expressing Oneself through Facial Expressions

This work documents a ritualistic performance concerned with Ansemia, or the inability to either express or understand gesture. Using symbolic materials -- hot wax, a knife, a dead bird -- as well as text, Export investigates human expression, and how communication can fail.
"I had used my mouth to take the knife from the podium - holding it in my mouth, (the knife is language, the naming of things, its separates the subject from the object) using it to cut."

(VALIE EXPORT)


VALIE EXPORT intervenes.

VALIE EXPORT ties up a bird that can no longer fly.

She pours hot wax on...

Orig. Title
Asemie – die Unfähigkeit, sich durch Mienenspiel ausdrücken zu können
Year
1973
Country
Austria
Duration
7 min
Director
VALIE EXPORT
Category
Avantgarde/Arts
Orig. Language
No Dialogue
Credits
Available Formats