The significance of witches to feminism, on politics of restitution and broken statues, and casting spells in feminist art practices

January 30, Johanna Braun, Anka Leśniak, Joulia StraussStrauss, Valerie Habsburg, and Elke Krasny gather on zoom for a public conversation on the significance of witches to feminism, on politics of restitution and broken statues, and casting spells in feminist art practices.

The Witch (1895) is a sculpture by Jewish sculptress Teodora Feodorwna Ries, who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Ries, whose work was shown at the Venice Biennale, had always wanted her works to also be shown at her place of study. Only in 2021, The Witch, who for many years had been lost without people noticing or museums searching for her, the sculpture was for the first time exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in the exhibition Un Paradiso Amaro, curated by Valerie Habsburg with curatorial support by Elke Krasny.