ORF-E
1 x 45 min
English
Worldwide

In this film portrait, director Susanne Riegler looks at a woman who has devoted herself to feminist art with passion and humor: Renate Bertlmann is a pioneer of Austrian performance art. For decades, her art was ignored by domestic galleries and museums. Now her works can be seen in major international museums and they fetch top prices. Since the 1960s, she has worked on themes like love, sexuality and gender roles and in 2017 she received the Austrian State Prize. Renate Bertlmann was the first woman ever to have a solo show in the Austria Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. On the occasion of the 59th Biennale, the artist presented a rose garden in the inner courtyard of the pavilion with 312 roses made of Murano glass, from which a sharp blade protruded. As a sign of love, but also of resistance: “I fight back, I don’t put up with anything anymore”, the artist says in the film portrait. A key factor in Renate Bertlmann’s success on the international art market was the collecting activity of Gabriele Schor, director of the “Sammlung Verbund”. Art historian and Biennale curator Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein and Stella Rollig, Director of the Belvedere, also talk about the importance of Renate Bertlmann as a leading figure of the “feminist avant-garde”.