Brigitte Aloise Roth, born in Vienna in 1951, spent her childhood and youth in Vienna and St. Pölten (in Lower Austria) and was active as an artist, educator, photographer, feminist and (environmental) activist.

Following her death in 2018, the artist Susanne Kompast, a friend and companion of Brigitte Aloise Roth, secured the entire photographic estate, resolved legal issues and contacted the archive and documentation centre basis wien.

Originally intended only for temporary storage due to lack of space, the collection has been housed in the basis wien archive since 2021 and has been catalogued there as part of Austria's cultural heritage within the framework of the digitisation initiative.

Stored in 45 archive boxes (dossiers), the collection mainly comprises negatives, photographs and contact prints, as well as notebooks, calendars, correspondence and written documents, exhibition information, posters, and invitations.

In addition to large-format posters, this collection includes illustrated panels – photographs mounted on large-format paper backing, which were presumably produced for exhibitions, presentations or lectures by Brigitte Aloise Roth.

The collection also includes original protest signs from demonstrations, as well as parts of the 'net' that was stretched across public spaces. The object, knotted from woollen threads and loose sheets of paper, was first presented at the Women's Parliament in 1997. Subsequently, Brigitte Aloise Roth stretched it across the Viennese urban landscape on International Women's Day on March 8th over a period of several years – with the collaboration of various groups and fellow campaigners.

The website created for the estate offers chronologically structured access to around 12,000 digitised photographs to date, published under the CC BY-NC-SA licence. Starting in 1971, individual albums allow visitors to trace connections between works, journeys and thematic focuses. Where available, the titles of the albums follow the original labels on the negative sleeves, such as ÖBB,1971.

Her early works from the 1970s document journeys within Austria as well as to Italy, England and other countries. Alongside cityscapes, architectural shots and scenes of everyday life, there are photographs of the Eurodomus design and furniture fair in 1972, and the Fiat car factory in Turin in 1972. These images already point to Roth's keen interest in urban spaces, industrial structures and social situations.

During this period, Brigitte Aloise Roth studied commercial art, illustration and photography, as well as teaching qualifications in art education and craft education, at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

An outstanding example of her early artistic exploration is the 1974 work Hampelfrau (loosely translated to female Jumping Jack).

In a text dedicated to Brigitte Aloise Roth's work in the magazine disclaim, Sophia Rohwetter writes, among other things, about this piece:

"Brigitte Aloise Roth's photograph Hampelfrau (originally 1974) is a self-portrait taken using a long exposure, depicting the artist as a dangling photographic jointed doll. The head and upper body hand seemingly motionless against a dark background from a light thread, whilst the arms and legs – attached to the shoulders, elbows, pelvis and knees with wing clips as separately movable elements – are multiplied through multiple exposures and motion blur. The limbs fan out to the sides of the torso and follow the schematic, mechanical movements of a jumping jack: the bent, raised arms stretch downwards, whilst the legs open further and further in a sequence of overlapping positions with varying angles of spread. The externally controlled dynamics of the jumping limbs appear strangely uncontrolled and contrast with the calm, self-assured gaze of the jumping woman, creating a tension between stillness and movement, activity and passivity."
– Rohwetter, Sophia Roxane (2025): Archiv: Die Hampelfrau. In:dis/claim. Inline: https://disclaim-magazine.com/5-Archiv (accessed on 20. April 2026). Translated to English

From the mid- to late 1970s, Roth spent time in England. There she became acquainted with the artist collective 'The Ting' (Theatre of Mistakes), founded in 1974, and documented several of their performances photographically over the years. The estate contains detailed documentation of these, such as that relating to the performance 'The Ting. A Waterfall' (1977).

The Vienna art and theatre scene from the late 1970s to the 1990s is also comprehensively documented in the estate. This includes, for example, photographs of performances at the Schauspielhaus Wien, such as Shadow Box in 1979 or Othello in 1980, by Gruppe 80, or of André Heller's Flic Flac (1982); among these is a detailed documentation of the extensive set design for the production, which took place at the Vienna Konzerthaus in 1982.

Of particular relevance to the basis wien archive and documentation centre are also the photographs found in the estate, depicting exhibition openings and performances within the Viennese art scene.

For instance, the photographs of the opening of Meret Oppenheim's exhibition at the Galerie nächst St. Stephan serve as a valuable addition to the existing database. Similarly, the documentation of Hermann Nitsch's first exhibition at the Galerie Peter Pakesch has been significantly expanded by photographs by Brigitte Aloise Roth. This also applies to the Orgien Mysterien Theater held on March 9th and 10th at the Galerie Peter Pakesch, which is also extensively documented in the estate.

Brigitte Aloise Roth shared a ling-standing friendship and working relationship with the artist Ona B. During the catalogue compilation process, photographs were discovered of the first exhibition curated by Ona B., Ona B. Chat Chat Chat (1982), as well as images of the performace by the artist Ona B., Birgit Jürgenssen, Evelyne Egerer and Ingeborg Strobl, who, as the legendary artist group DIE DAMEN (engl. THE WOMEN), performed at the Vienna Secession on April 18th 1989 under the title Die Damen. postmodern.

Brigitte Huck wrote on this in 2013: "The terrain of female professional life is a recurring motif. 'It was the time when women working in the economy had begun not only to act like men, but also dress like them: business suits, trouser souts, etc.' (Ingeborg Strobl). In 1989, DIE DAMEN celebrated the new 'executive style' at the Vienna Secession in white blouses, ties and glasses.

As the doors to the darkened main room open, the audience is surprised by a visually spectacular tableau: four desks and industrial lamps hanging from the ceiling are enough to unite grotesque comedy and the horrors of bureaucracy into an absurd Kafkaesque dystopia.

The evening will go down in performance history as the birth of the DIE DAMEN brand. Invitations and limited editions produced, sold or given away as freebies on the occasion of individual events will develop into a distinct and very special chapter of their own. The apt references to the chosen theme are dry-witted comments: clever, concise and full of dark humour."
– Huck, Brigitte: Die Damen. Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2013, p.53; translated to English

The estate also contained exhibition views of the 1978 exhibition Robert Maria Stieg. Unvollkommen Möbelhaftes at the Künstlerhaus Wien.

In April 1981, the opening of Andy Warhol's exhibition took place at the 20er Haus, Museum of Modern Art. Around 90 photographs from Brigitte Aloise Roth's estate relating to this event have been digitised and are now publicly accessible.

The performances from the 1990 exhibition 'fluxus happening' at the Galerie Krinzinger, featuring Carolee Schneemann in Vienna among others, were also photographically documented by Brigitte Aloise Roth and enrich the collection with a significant visual source on the history of performance and exhibitions in Vienna.

Alongside cultural and institutional contexts, the estate also offers an intimate glimpse into Roth's social circle and her affection for animals, particularly cats: a cat on a bonnet, kittens and young cats. Portraits of fellow artists, friends and companions such as Peter Putz in the studio and Minna Antova stand alongside photographs of everyday scenes, posters from 1983 and 1992 and election campaign material from 1990, urban changes, building sites, traffic accidents, etc., thus becoming documents of a specific historical zeitgeist and bearing witness to political awareness.

Brigitte Aloise Roth was a tireless advocate for women's rights and feminist causes; she organised and documented demonstrations and protests in Vienna. It is thanks to her efforts that the felling of trees in the 13th district was prevented.

Her attachment to the chestnut tree outside her window on Premreinergasse, which still stands there today, is evident in the photographs in spring, summer, autumn and winter.