VALIE EXPORT
VALIE EXPORT, Yukon Quest, 1986
with Ingrid Wiener, Oswald Wiener, Elisabeth Förster-Staffleuer
Documentary, 4:3, color, stereo, 58 min.
Courtesy ORF © 1986
The documentary Yukon Quest was filmed in northern Canada, on the border with Alaska, where Ingrid and Oswald Wiener had been living in Dawson City for three years at the time. VALIE EXPORT, Ingrid Wiener, and Oswald Wiener document a regionally popular sled dog race lasting several days and accompany a trapper friend of theirs who is participating in it. At the same time, the film also serves as a record of the couple living in nature and far removed from their former lives. As Oswald Wiener notes at the beginning of the film, “the extreme conditions bring out the mechanisms of nature and culture.” The camera often appears to be mounted directly on the sled, thus following the dogs closely through the snow. The three artists take turns providing commentary, while other sections are set to excerpts from Kurt Weill’s opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny), which tells the story of how, in the eponymous city, unrestrained indulgence and greed ultimately lead to moral and social collapse.
Yukon Quest, 1986
with Ingrid Wiener, Oswald Wiener, Elisabeth Förster-Staffleuer
Documentary, 4:3, color, stereo
58 min.
Courtesy ORF © 1986