This issue of The Remote Archivist has been compiled by Emma van Meyeren, a writer and DJ based in Amsterdam. Emma’s eyes fell on the work of Mary Beth Edelson, a member of the American feminist network Heresies, who sadly passed away on the 20th of April 2021. We therefore dedicate this issue of The Remote Archivist to Mary Beth Edelson (1933–2021).

For this issue Emma has taken the draft for the performance work Sacred Ritual as a starting point to script her own contemporary ritual. Edelson’s work took the form of performative rituals as a way to honour the ‘feminist foremother’, or ‘goddess’. A registration of her work was screened for the 1978 exhibition Feministische Kunst Internationaal, which was co-presented by de Appel and played an important role in reigniting a contemporary feminist discourse in the Netherlands and abroad, especially through the participation of a comprehensive list of international, female artists.

A special launch of this issue was held on the 15th of April at mistral in Amsterdam, in tandem with the exhibition Proxy Gaze. Proxy Gaze was an ongoing film-screening programme in the window of their space hosting different works of moving image from de Appel Archive made by some of the other female artists which had taken part in Feministische Kunst Internationaal: Martha Wilson, Laurie Anderson, Joan Jonas, and Lynda Benglis.

Emma has followed the traces of Feministische Kunst Internationaal through the archive: red reviews, viewed photos, studied correspondence. She laid eyes upon on the work of Mary Beth Edelson, a member of the American feminist network Heresies, who showed her work in '78 in de Appel as part of the Feministische Kunst Internationaal . Edelson worked with performative rituals, among other things to honor the feminist ancestor (or: 'goddess'). More than 40 years after the display of this work in Amsterdam, the question of where feminists end up in the collective memory and how they can be honoured is once again relevant. Not least because of Edelson's death in April 2021.

As of yesterday Huib Haye van der Werf has been appointed interim director at de Appel and to avoid double caps he has handed over the making of The Remote Archivist series 03 to Emma van Meyeren. Emma van Meyeren was already invited to write a text for series 03 and had already been introduced to the research subject. She will resume Huib's research and translate her own view on the topic onto this episode of The Remote Archivist.

Emma van Meyeren is a writer and DJ based in Amsterdam. In 2020 she published a collection of essays about grief, titled: Ook ik ben stukgewaaid. In her ongoing research, about the diary as feminist genre, she invites artists to consider the relations between the every-day and the political.

The Remote Archivist Series 03 – Issue 1 of 1, will be released and posted in January 2022

This issue of The Remote Archivist introduces the reasearch of mistral, and its co-founder Huib Haye van der Werf in the Archive of de Appel. Huib’s engagement with the archive dates back to the year of his participation in the Curatorial Programme of de Appel (04/05).

As part of a screening programme for mistral on 'the female gaze' in moving image, his research led him back to the 'Feminist' labelled archives of de Appel and the 'Feminist Art International' initiative. This exhibition and public programme, which took place in 1978, was co-initiated by de Appel and played an important role in (re)starting a contemporary feminist discourse in the Netherlands and abroad, with an impressive list of international and female-only artists who took part.

Lynda Benglis' video contribution to this exhibition - 'The Amazing Bow-Wow' (1977) - is the subject from which this research developed further.

This issue of The Remote Archivist will showcase how the language, imagination and reception of this work relate to contemporary feminist positions, and feminist art, as well as current discussions about identity politics and categorization.

The launch of this issue of The Remote Archivist coincides with a movie night in mistral, with contributions by: Martha Wilson, Joan Jonas, Laurie Anderson, Emma van Meyeren and Lynda Benglis. (Date to be announced.)

This programme is made possible in part by AFK.

Maker: Emma van Meyeren
Artist: Mary Beth Edelson
Archivist: Nell Donkers

Designer: Bardhi Haliti

Printer: Drukkerij Raddraaier SSP
Publisher: de Appel

This project is made possible by AFK