Linda Christanell (Part 1)
November 11, 2026
After studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and before turning to film as her medium of expression, Linda Christanell, a key figure of the Austrian feminist avant-garde, created installations, performances, and book and photo objects, as well as textile sculptures. These fabric objects belong to a larger universe of objects, which play a role again and again in Christanell's films. Alongside her own artworks, these are often everyday things: jewelry, shoes, fur and needles, postcards and old photos. Out of this typically female-coded potpourri, the filmmaker creates, through a feminist reinterpretation, an arsenal of fetishes that she experimentally brings to life on film. With her unmistakable signature, Christanell creates a dazzling cosmos of images, sounds, and language, tackling socio-political questions concerning roles, bodies, and sexuality.
A trailblazing feminist filmmaker, Linda Christanell revolted not only against the patriarchy in her art, but was also active in the women's movement. She was – with artists like Renata Bertlmann, Moucle Blackout, Karin Mack, and Margot Pilz – an early member of IntAkt (International Action Society of Women Fine Artists), an artists network founded in 1977 that continues to fight for equality and political participation. With Bertlmann, she co-founded the BC-Kollektiv and they co-directed the film Objektassoziationen (1976), which we will show in the second part of our retrospective in January.
On the occasion of the exhibition LINDA CHRISTANELL: The Gifts of the Goddess at Künstlerhaus, we will dedicate a two-part complete retrospective to Christanell's unique body of films. Since acquiring her film archive, our team has digitized and restored all of the artist's work, primarily using Super 8 and 16mm reversal originals as well as prints from our collection. While part of the restored work is on view in the exhibition, we will present Christanell's 16mm films on analog film prints as well as her Super 8 works in digital form. The first part of the retrospective, which you can see in November, illustrates the breadth and variety of her work: from the early short films to 2002's Picture Again, which focuses on film as material and cinema as gaze. (Andrea Pollach / Translation: Ted Fendt)
In cooperation with the Künstlerhaus, where the exhibition LINDA CHRISTANELL: The Gifts of the Goddess will be on view from November 7, 2026, through February 7, 2027.
After studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and before turning to film as her medium of expression, Linda Christanell, a key figure of the Austrian feminist avant-garde, created installations, performances, and book and photo objects, as well as textile sculptures. These fabric objects belong to a larger universe of objects, which play a role again and again in Christanell's films. Alongside her own artworks, these are often everyday things: jewelry, shoes, fur and needles, postcards and old photos. Out of this typically female-coded potpourri, the filmmaker creates, through a feminist reinterpretation, an arsenal of fetishes that she experimentally brings to life on film. With her unmistakable signature, Christanell creates a dazzling cosmos of images, sounds, and language, tackling socio-political questions concerning roles, bodies, and sexuality.
A trailblazing feminist filmmaker, Linda Christanell revolted not only against the patriarchy in her art, but was also active in the women's movement. She was – with artists like Renata Bertlmann, Moucle Blackout, Karin Mack, and Margot Pilz – an early member of IntAkt (International Action Society of Women Fine Artists), an artists network founded in 1977 that continues to fight for equality and political participation. With Bertlmann, she co-founded the BC-Kollektiv and they co-directed the film Objektassoziationen (1976), which we will show in the second part of our retrospective in January.
On the occasion of the exhibition LINDA CHRISTANELL: The Gifts of the Goddess at Künstlerhaus, we will dedicate a two-part complete retrospective to Christanell's unique body of films. Since acquiring her film archive, our team has digitized and restored all of the artist's work, primarily using Super 8 and 16mm reversal originals as well as prints from our collection. While part of the restored work is on view in the exhibition, we will present Christanell's 16mm films on analog film prints as well as her Super 8 works in digital form. The first part of the retrospective, which you can see in November, illustrates the breadth and variety of her work: from the early short films to 2002's Picture Again, which focuses on film as material and cinema as gaze. (Andrea Pollach / Translation: Ted Fendt)
In cooperation with the Künstlerhaus, where the exhibition LINDA CHRISTANELL: The Gifts of the Goddess will be on view from November 7, 2026, through February 7, 2027.
Link Künstlerhaus