The archive of IntAkt. Internationale Aktionsgemeinschaft bildender Künstlerinnen
The archive as a place of encounter
Since its foundation in 1977, IntAkt has been engaged in the archiving of correspondence, invitation cards and exhibition posters from its members and correspondents.Until 1988, IntAkt was responsible for the IntAkt Gallery, which was located in the Griechenbeisl in Vienna's 1st district. This served as a meeting place, exhibition venue and archive. The following year, the action group relocated to the premises of the WUK (Werkstätten- und Kulturhaus, Währingerstraße 59, 1090 Vienna), where the gallery and archive space is still located today.IntAkt's significance as a central element of the artists' group has persisted throughout its history, functioning as a shared and independent exhibition venue, as well as an open and protected space for exchange and reflection.
Connections through time and space
The IntAkt archive contains a variety of materials relevant to the association's history, including documentation of works by IntAkt members. In addition to this, the archive also houses numerous documents pertaining to women's history, as well as contemporary documents, primarily from the 1970s and 1980s.The documentation provides a comprehensive insight into the association's networking with women artists' groups and individual artists in other European countries, offering a valuable perspective on the social and political conditions prevalent at the time among the artists in question.
Then and now
The formation of IntAkt can be traced back to the protests that were mounted against the exhibition 'Austrian Women Artists of the Present', which was held at the Ethnological Museum in 1975 to mark the International Women’s Year (IWY). For a considerable number of female artists, the realisation of the exhibition embodied the fundamental discrimination of women in the art world and placed women's art in the vicinity of handicrafts and folk art.
IntAkt, founded as a feminist-inspired network of women artists, formulated its goals in 1977 as follows:
- To improve the situation of female visual artists in the social and artistic field
- Active participation in current cultural and political events
- Active involvement in existentially important problems
To this day, IntAkt sees itself as an interest group of female visual artists. Over the course of its nearly 50-year existence, the association has organised more than 100 individual exhibitions and events, and while its original mission has remained largely unchanged, its methods and perspectives have evolved.Women artists today aspire to integration into the art market, seeking professional success and the ability to earn a livelihood from their artistic work.In this regard, IntAkt functions as a supportive platform.