"Tapp und Tastkino"

gelatin silver print

titled, dated and numbered on verso (Tapp und Tastkino, 1968, A.P. II)

Image of the first performance of the now legendary Tapp und Tastkino by VALIE EXPORT and Peter Weibel on Karlsplatz (Stachus) in Munich on 14 November 1968. This action in public space translated the concept of Expanded Cinema and the rootedness of cinema in the fairground into the "first direct women's film", as the artist calls Tapp und Tastkino. Public access - limited to half a minute per person - is advertised by Peter Weibel. The cinema is presented in an immediate way as a projection space for male fantasies. This early, still ironic crossing of the boundary between art and life already signalled VALIE EXPORT's often risky, but in any case always decidedly personal use of her own body.
(Media Kunst Netz, www.medienkunstnetz.de, transl. with DeepL)

1^st tap and touch film / 1^st street film / 1^st mobile film / 1^st real women's film.
As always, the screening takes place in the dark, only the cinema has become a little smaller. There is only room for two hands. In order to see the film, i.e. in this case to feel and sense the film, the viewer/user must put both hands through the entrance to the cinema. This raises the curtain, which previously only lifted for the eyes, for the hands as well. Admission to the cinema is free of charge and for children.
In the state cinema, they sit in the dark and watch someone do it to someone else, nobody is watching them. Here they do it themselves with someone in the light and many people look at them. They come to their star and are a star themselves.
Each visitor was only allowed 12 seconds in the Tapp und Tastkino, i.e. 1/5 of a minute, so that everyone could have their turn.
On the occasion of the 1st European Meeting of Independent Filmmakers in Munich, 12-17 November 1968, organised by Undependent Fiilm Center (K.H. Hein, Werner Schulz), W. & B. Hein, Klaus Schönherr. The world premiere had taken place on 11. 11. 1968 on the occasion of the 2nd Maraisiade, organised by Erich Mautner. At the award ceremony, held in the hall of the Economic Development Institute of the Federal Chamber, Vienna 7, Hoher Markt, VALIE presented her Tapp und Tastkino instead of her award-winning film Ping Pong, to the horror of the audience. There was a scuffle during and before the film.(Peter Weibel, in: Peter Weibel (ed.), Wien: Bildkompendium, Wiener Aktionismus und Film, Frankfurt am Main 1970, p. 261, transl. with DeepL)

Riots after the awards ceremony. There were not only loud arguments between the rival groups of young filmmakers, but also a real brawl after the awards were announced. At the centre of the brawl were juror Peter Weibel and Swiss director Georg Radanovicz. The scuffle was provoked by Valie Export when she demonstrated her exhibitionist farce of the tapping and touching film.
(in: Österreichische Film- und Kinozeitung, 22^nd vol., 16.11.1968, transl. with DeepL)

The extreme highlight of the exhibition: 1/5 Minute, a work by VALIE EXPORT, the first tap and touch film and at the same time the first real film by and about a woman. Even in the foyer and on the street, VALIE intends to make an artistic impression - with a plastic frame in front of her upper body. The frame is covered with strips of fabric. VALIE on the purpose and meaning of the enterprise, which could possibly degenerate into the creation of a Tapp family: "The woman is a central theme of the film. But the film has to be brought out of the cinema and into the people. What's more, it's better than the current commercial film products. Commercial film offers surrogates, we offer something real. What's more, the brutality of this exhibition is an effective means of combating the rampant voyeurism."
(Excerpt from ‘Tapp, tapp, ein Film, Austria Filmmakers Cooperative in München beliebt und zu Gast’, in: Peter Hajek, Von Film zu Film, Kurier, 12.11.1968, 1st edition, transl. with DeepL)