Export, Valie, Otto Muehl, Peter Weibel, Tony Conrad, Dieter Meier, and other artists.

[VIDEO ART BY THE VIENNA ACTIONISTS – FROM THE LIBRARY OF BIRGIT HEIN, A PIONEER OF EXPERIMENTAL AND UNDERGROUND FILM] Filme, Videotapes Teil II, 1973/74 [Films, Videotapes Part II, 1973/74].

Munich: P. A. P. Filmgalerie, 1973. Quarto (30 × 21.2 cm). Original pictorial wrappers; [48] pp. with numerous reproductions of video stills. Title page with ownership stamp of Birgit Hein; wrappers somewhat stained; else good or better. Item #55026

Catalog of the film sales and distribution company “Progressive Art Production,” founded by Karlheinz Hein in 1969. Together with the Swiss conceptual artist Dieter Meier, Hein was active not only as a distributor but also as a curator and producer of films and performances – primarily featuring the Viennese Actionists. Provocative actions and scandals were not least a means of distribution. Notable among these are the Expanded Cinema performances by Valie Export and Peter Weibel, such as Tapp- und Tastkino. "Progressive Art Production" offered more than just artistic films for sale and distribution; it also organized film programs and Expanded Cinema performances in diverse settings—ranging from film and theater festivals to art fairs, museums, and counterculture venues. (cf. François Bovier, >blog.zhdk.ch/sfex/files/2015/11/Bovier_Francois_PAP_Film_Implosion.pdf<, June 10, 2025.)

“'Political and pornographic films': these are two terms that, when considered together, appear to be almost emblematic of the strategy of the film gallery P.A.P. (...) with 'provocative' or scandalous performances by the Viennese actionists (...). In the films distributed by P. A.P., there is no trace of 'modernism' or 'formalism', but rather a series of processes, actions, events and performances whose principal vehicle (...) is the materiality of the body and the film material (...).” (transl. after Ibid.)

The catalog opens with an interview with Tony Conrad about his experimental film "The Flicker", which serves as a counterpoint to the actionist main line of the PAP Filmgalerie. This is followed by several pages on Peter Weibel's film works. Detailed descriptions of some films are preceded by a chronological list, and certain films are also documented in detail with stills. The section on Peter Weibel is followed by a comprehensive documentation of an action Otto Muehl carried out in Ohio in April 1973. Muehl's text is accompanied by numerous full-page photographs by Valerie Brown. The publication concludes with two extensive presentations of the film works of Valie Export and Dieter Meier, with texts accompanying Export's stills, while Meier opts out of descriptive commentary altogether.

As of September 2025, KVK, OCLC list four copies in North America.

Price: €1,200.00

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