MAD WIMMIN SPACES Seminar

MAD WIMMIN SPACES Seminar

Description of the Work/Project:
During the winter semester of 25/26, the MAD WIMMIN SPACES seminar explored the “Feminist Bookstore Movement” of the 1980s and the social significance of bookstores. Inspired by “Madwimmin Books”—a queer-feminist bookstore that serves as a social and political gathering place for the protagonists in Alison Bechdel’s comic series “Dykes to Watch Out For”—the seminar focused on local bookstore projects, of which only a few remain today.

Through site visits, interviews with eyewitnesses, and work with archival materials, the history, spatial conditions, and uses of these places were reconstructed. The research on historic women’s bookstores in Karlsruhe, Tübingen, Stuttgart, Mannheim, and Munich was first visualized through isometric drawings and then translated into interior models on a 1:20 scale.

This process gave rise to a variety of approaches: The model of “Johanna mit Teepott” in Karlsruhe connects the store’s past, present, and a fictional future. A 3D scan of “Thalestris” in Tübingen was transformed into a perspectively distorted model, while embroidered floor plans on fabric were created for the now-defunct Stuttgart bookstore “Goudou.” “Xanthippe” in Mannheim, on the other hand, was examined in terms of its spatial and social function.

In the course of the research, it became clear once again that feminist bookstores are far more than just places to sell books: they are spaces for coming together, self-organization, and political education. As institutions of a movement, they create counter-public spheres—“parallel arenas” for exchange, discussion, and collective practice.

Brief biographies of the artists or information about the collective or the creative process
MAD WIMMIN SPACES – Model-making seminar in the Department of Exhibition Design & Scenography during the winter semester 25/26.
Students: Greta Bauer, Ainoa Maria Mora, Johanna Merkelbach, Mark Sauter, Julia Heinze, Jiayu Liu, Yerim Kim, Asimina Sideris, and Klara Beck. Instructor: Vera Gärtner.