Enkel gathers a series of images that Katrin Kamrau came across at the Lieven Gevaert Archief — an AGFA company’s archive — formerly situated in Mortsel (Belgium). These reproductions of documents and images, made in the framework of a sponsorship for the Nationale Vrouwenraad, Nederlandstalige afdeling [Belgian National Womens Council, Flemish section] in 1987, trace a history of the women’s movement in Belgium compiled by a group of volunteers led by Denise de Weerdt, a Belgian historian and pioneer in gender studies.
Enkel reproduces these worksheets, each showing an image in thumbnail-size and the dimensions of the reproduction-in-the-making. The final photographic reproductions made by AGFA were shown in a traveling exhibition in Belgium, entitled Vastberaden Vrouwen [Resolute Women], in 1987 and, in the form of a slide projection, as part of NVR’s contribution to the International Council of Women’s centenary celebrations in Washington D.C. (United States) in 1988.
Marie Lécrivain: “Katrin Kamrau reproduces this proof sheet, heretofore preserved in the archives, in the form of a spiral-bound notebook oscillating between photographic and archival practice in which the document is composed of the photographic miniatures as well as their surrounding indications.”
While highlighting the temporary and fragile material dimension of the working conditions of this feminist social movement, Katrin Kamrau draws attention to both, the incomplete remains of alternative historiography (herstory) in Western society — fragmented and/or accidentally preserved — well hidden in private and public archives and the blind spots of White feminism.
