Salon Real / Virtual #9 | The Conceptual World of Ines Rieder Visualizing a Women’s Studies Archive

Among her greatest achievements was her dedication to making lesbian life and its historical background visible, and she emphasized the importance of researching and preserving its history, particularly in open-access archives. Her publications set an example for how to keep that history from being erased and they create opportunities for identification and critical analysis of lesbian personalities. Woman and AIDS, a book she co-authored in 1988, was the first to address that epidemic from a feminist perspective. The primary focus of her later writing and research was on creating biographies of twentieth century lesbians.

After her sudden death, her personal and research papers were transferred to STICHWORT – Archiv der Frauen– und Lesbenbewegung in 2016 for cataloging and conservation. More than 74 archive boxes und 150 database entries comprise this private collection and make possible a comprehensive understanding of her writing and thought process, as well as her often years-long preliminary studies for a project.

Thanks to this archive and the many autobiographical details it has revealed, her conceptual world can now be made visible in a multi-media exhibit. This exhibit is not just the story of an archive of a flesh and blood human, but should show us what happens if an archive, a site that preserves documents and knowledge, is not constantly replenished and thus ceases to exist.

Artist Marlene Rodrigues, Ines Rieder’s life partner for many years, played a major role in creating this exhibit. This is her characterization of Ines’s conceptual world: „Her brain was better than any digital archive. It stored thousands of stories and so much knowledge, so many thoughts and ideas about the life and works of other women. Ines loved life and people, and she enthusiastically absorbed and archived things that change and the stories that go with that.”

Women who knew Ines Rieder or are now involved in her conceptual world, in the archive, have been invited to participate in this exhibit. Here the archive will be re-conceived, expanded and  made artistically visible; and in spatial, temporal and social contexts it questions the boundaries of an archive itself, with reference to preservation, access and visibility. The newly created works – whether a poem, musical composition, video, text, performance or drawing – will bring to light the artists personal, internal “conceptual archive”.

Due to the current situation, the exhibit is presented both in a virtual 3D gallery and in the actual exhibition space at Schleifmühlgasse 18 where artworks will be displayed together with some of Ines Rieder`s personal objects representative of her work routine. Talks, concerts and performances will take place in these rooms. Depending on the situation with the epidemic in June 2021, these individual events might also be videotaped without an audience and can be accessed via a virtual stroll between Schleifmühlgasse 18 (the building in which Ines Rieder lived) and the Stichwort Archive at Gusshausstraße 20.

A women’s tour of lesbian-related sites in the neighborhood is planned with Petra Unger. After the close of the exhibit, all the newly created art works, videos, musical compositions, documents and the virtual exhibit will be transferred to the Stichwort Archive and they will also be accessible in the virtual gallery. In addition, a blog, a multi-page exhibition catalog, posters and video documentation of the talks, concert and performance will accompany the exhibit and can also be called up in the virtual gallery.
Translated by Jill Hannum

Project team & partners
galerie michaela stock & Verein zur Förderung der Kunst – Schleife 18
Marlene Rodrigues
STICHWORT – Archiv der Frauen- und Lesbenbewegung
goes art | channel TV visuelle Medienplattform
Kunstmatrix, digitale Kunstplattform