INES is an archiving system with a feminist perspective that I developed to create the archive of the Mexican Architect of Lebanese descent, Josefina Mena Abraham, during my research for the Doctoral program in History and Critical Theory of Art and the MA Studies program Women and Gender at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York. 2018 – 2024.
However, it is not about the loss of the archival form as a possibility to preserve and conserve memories; It is an active form of resistance, in which I proposed a review of the concept of “Matriarchiva” and the Matriarchivamiento method: INES, Intersectional Expanded System, as a critical stance against traditional-patriarchal archiving methods. Julieta Kirwood suggests that “the history of women has remained invisible because it has not been narrated, recognized, or expressed; and remains hidden under historiographical forms assumed to be real.” 1 . In a similar sense, Griselda Pollock asks, “why has modernist culture been so unable imaginatively to integrate women’s creativity into its narratives of creative radicalism, innovation, dissidence, or transgression?” 2 . As a feminist, art historian, and visual artist, I allow myself to join Josefina’s voice and mine to those of Kirwood, Pollock, and so many feminists
who have worked emphatically to recover and exhume the stories and artistic productions of the women who are not visible. This recovery allows us to understand what our oppression has been and assume a virtual liberation.
The information in this portal refers to the different devices that I have managed to activate from this INES system, including exhibitions, activations, workshops, expansions, and creations of matriarchives. If you want more information, please send us an email through the Contact sheet.
1 Kirwood, Ser Política en Chile. Las feministas y los partidos, (1986)
2 Griselda Pollock, “Moments and Temporalities of the Avant-Garde “in, of, and from the feminine””, New Literary History, What Is an Avant-Garde? Vol. 41, No. 4 (AUTUMN, 2010): 795-820.
