Image: © BC Kollektiv/Linda Christanell and Renate Bertlmann / Bildrecht, Objekt-Assoziationen, 1976, film still
The Künstlerhaus in Vienna is preparing a retrospective of Linda Christanell, whom it describes as one of the pioneers of the feminist avant-garde. "Linda Christanell: Die Gaben der Göttin" (The Gifts of the Goddess) will run from November 7, 2026, to February 7, 2027, on the building's upper floor, as part of Vienna Art Week 2026. Christanell has long been a member of the Künstlerhaus association, and according to the institution this is the largest solo exhibition of her career.
Curated by Rhea Tebbich and Berthold Ecker, the show is the first to cover the whole of Christanell's early work through to her films. It follows a path that begins in the mid-1960s with drawings and paintings that take up ideas from Cubism, breaking forms apart and moving toward a sign-like abstraction. The Künstlerhaus notes that this already placed her among the avant-garde in Austria at that stage.
Toward the end of the decade she began joining pieces of Plexiglas into unusual objects, and also made textile and foam works that she used together with her own body. For several years she worked with the artist Renate Bertlmann as the BC Kollektiv; images on the exhibition page come from their film "Objekt-Assoziationen" (1976). Photography and, above all, film gradually became her main media and eventually replaced the others. In this work she tested the limits of representation early on, raising questions about the body, the gaze, identity and visibility.
Film footage that has so far been little known is being restored for the exhibition in cooperation with the Filmmuseum and will be presented in the show. Film stills from works including "Meomosa," "Moving Picture" and "Rouge et Noir" also appear on the exhibition page.
The retrospective also sets Christanell's work alongside positions by younger women artists, a pairing the institution presents as evidence of how current her work remains. Artists with work in the exhibition include Renate Bertlmann, Andrea Freiberger, Kiki Furlan, Ingrid Gaier, Gudrun Kampl, Claudia-Maria Luenig, Karin Mack, Elisabeth Melkonyan, Christiana Perschon, Margot Pilz and Gerlinde Wurth.
The opening on the evening of November 6 includes remarks by Künstlerhaus president Tanja Prušnik, artistic director Günther Oberhollenzer and the two curators. A family workshop linked to the exhibition is planned for November 28.
