Media City Film Festival celebrates its Opening Night Detroit in partnership with The Penny Stamps Speaker Series at the Detroit Film Theatre. Join us for an incredible double-bill screening with legendary filmmakers and feminist activists Carolee Schneemann (USA) and VALIE EXPORT (Austria). The evening’s program includes a unique in-person presentation by Schneemann, and a selection of both canonical and lesser-known films by both artists, including VALIE EXPORT’s Poem films (1966-1980), along with a restoration of Carolee Schneemann’s Fuses (1964-67).

Musical performance by Motown’s Carolyn Crawford accompanied by Rick Jones (Detroit), in tribute to Aretha Franklin.

“I didn’t want to perform in a gallery or a museum as they were too conservative for me and would only give conventional responses to my experimental works. It was important for me to present my works to the public, in the public space, and not within an art-conservative space, but in the by then so-called underground. When I was performing my actions in public, on the streets, in the urban space, new and different forms of reception developed. In the streets I provoked new explanations.” – VALIE EXPORT

“I’m of the opinion that we don’t necessarily need so many artists. I recommend that many of the people who think they want to be artists should go into the [American] Friends Service Committee, or do government outreach to communities that don’t have water, or that need seeds or ecological assistance. It would create a system in which people with engaged sensibilities and potential insight assist instead of imposing. We have some very powerful examples here in the United States, like in Detroit, where there’s been an intensive grassroots movement by local communities—black and white—to bring life back to the city.” – Carolee Schneemann

Carolee Schneemann (Fox Chase PA, 1939). Studies at Bard College and University of Illinois. One of the defining avant-garde filmmakers and feminist performance artists of the 20th century. 20+ films since 1963; screenings and exhibitions including Museum der Moderne Salzburg, MoMA PS1 and Sotheby’s (New York), Joan Miró Foundation (Barcelona), Ludwig Museum (Vienna), Reina Sophia (Madrid), Whitechapel Gallery (London), Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo), etc. Recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship (1993), Rockefeller Fellowship (1993), Yoko Ono Courage Award (2012) and Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement (2017). Lives in upstate New York.

VALIE EXPORT (Linz, Austria 1940). Studies at convent (unidentified) and Vienna’s National School for Textile Industry. In 1967 begins to develop one of the most significant bodies of experimental feminist art of the postwar period. 100+ film, video and performance actions since 1966; screenings and exhibitions at Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Metropolitan Museum (New York), Shanghai Art Museum, mumok (Vienna), Centre Pompidou (Paris), MoMA (New York), Tate Modern (London), National Centre for Contemporary Art (Moscow). Recipient of Oskar Kokoschka Prize (2000), Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2005), Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria (2010). Lives in Vienna, Austria and Cologne, Germany.