With Simply Making and Doing, Marta Herford presents a museum retrospective of the work of Austrian artist Ingrid Wiener (born 1942 in Vienna). Wiener’s artistic-philosophical environment is explored in her subtle tapestries, dream drawings, and sometimes humorous performative works, as are fundamental themes of life and perception.

Influenced by the early actions of the Vienna Group in the 1950s, Ingrid Wiener (then Schuppan) studied at the Textile College together with her friend, the artist now internationally known as VALIE EXPORT (born 1940). Their first collaborative woven works for the artist Hundertwasser and tapestries based on designs by Dieter Roth emerged, shaped by artistic exchange. Ingrid Wiener ultimately understands the elaborate tapestry work as a counterpart to painting and addresses weaving itself in her tapestries, consciously making the many threads behind the carpet visible.

Content-wise, these are everyday motifs such as recipes, still lifes from her surroundings, and most recently X-rays of her body, which she uses as templates and translates into her typical weaving technique of “Seeing Through the Warp,” as described by Michaela Leutzendorff Pakesch^[1]. Stains found on the paper templates or objects standing in the room before her also find their way into the rich visual narratives, as do geometric shapes and finely crafted color gradients.

“Why not simply weave what you already see behind the warp threads? Away from the design and into the things we see,” says Ingrid Wiener herself about her working process.^[2]

Together with her partner, the writer and cyberneticist Oswald Wiener (1935-2021), Wiener left her hometown of Vienna in the late 1960s. The reason for this was actions in the context of the Vienna Group, in which she herself was active as a performer. Between 1970 and 1984, the two opened several establishments in Berlin behind the Iron Curtain that are still famous today, such as the legendary Exil: Ingrid Wiener cooked, her husband was behind the bar, and the artist Michel Würthle, also born in Vienna (who later opened the famous Paris Bar), served the guests. Even during their stay in Dawson City, Canada, in the Yukon gold rush region, their restaurant Claims Café became a destination for numerous artists and intellectuals. In parallel to their residence and workplace in Canada, the couple lived in Cologne and Krefeld in the 1990s, and since 2000, they have also lived in Austria again. Throughout these various locations, Wiener consistently pursued her creative work, always carrying her travel loom with her. Today, she lives and works in Kapfenstein (Styria).

During her eventful life, over 40 tapestries, more than 350 dream drawings, and several films, photos, and singing projects were created. Approximately 75 of the artist’s works, some multi-part, from various creative fields are gathered in the exhibition at Marta Herford. In terms of content, the works form a fascinating network in which themes such as cooking, machine theory, philosophy, and friendship are interwoven.

The perception of her surroundings and self-observation are recurring methods of her artistic engagement. The constant exchange with Oswald Wiener, as well as with their broad network, also plays a significant role in her motifs. Her practice of artistic exchange with others can also be experienced in the exhibition through exemplary correspondence between Ingrid Wiener and media theorist Nils Röller, as well as with psychologist and biomechanist Ira Wool.

Between personal notes and philosophical analyses, the connection between art and life in Wiener’s work becomes a sensually poetic experience, captivating with its subtle formal qualities. The exhibition invites visitors to navigate a multifaceted, philosophical narrative characterized by authenticity and humor. Throughout her life, Ingrid Wiener was concerned with creation and togetherness. This has resulted in astonishing artworks that are now being made accessible to a broad public with the exhibition Simply Do and Act.

With kind support from
The Austrian Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport

In cooperation with
Phileas – The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art

[1] Michaela Leutzendorff Pakesch, Singing, Weaving, Cooking, Filming – The Adventure of Being, in: Ibid. Seeing Through the Warp, ed. by the author, Vienna 2020, p. 13.

[2] Ingrid Wiener, Large Tapestry (Portrait Dieter Roth), woven 1981 to 1984, [1986], in: One May Also Weave What One Does Not See. The Tapestries of Dieter Roth and Ingrid Wiener, ed. Karin Schick, Kirchner Museum Davos, Davos 2007, p. 38