Ästhetische Travestie: Zur Inszenierung des Geschlechts in der österreichischen Aktionskunst der 1960er Jahre

This article addresses the coherencies linking subjectivity, power, and gender in the Austrian performance art of the late 1960s. It focuses especially on cross-dressing, that is, on performative gender-switching. Based on the confrontation of two exemplary works by Günter Brus and valie export , the following questions are crucial to this study: What kind of subjectivity is negotiated through this identification with “the other”? Furthermore, what type of role-playing challenges traditional sexual power relations and, finally, what differences result from the opposing approaches of the two artists?