On Motherhood – Artist Talk & Book Presentation with Anna Riess, Andi Galdi Vinko, Mother Tongue Magazine

28 May 2026, 18:00
Softcover, Stumpergasse 53-55, 1060 Vienna

Please sign up in advance as places are limited:

Talk language: English
Admission: Free

Join us this evening for this special event on motherhood. Anna Riess will present her artist book “M.other body” (2026) and Andi Galdi Vinko will talk about her photo book “Sorry I Gave Birth I Disappeared But Now I’m Back” (2022). Meet the artists in person and join us for this discussion. The team of Mother Tongue magazine will join us in form of a video message.

In conversation with:

Anna Riess – M.other body (2026)

Anna Riess is a multidisciplinary artist and cultural anthropologist based in Vienna. Her work explores themes of embodiment, emotion, and interbodily relations through materials like clay, metal, and textiles. Deeply influenced by her experience of motherhood, she transforms everyday objects into symbolic forms – one of her gestures she describes as the “nippelization of the everyday.”

“M.other body” was born from a deeply personal and vulnerable process. Through her own artistic practice Anna Riess examines how to be artist and mother. In close collaboration with photographer Elodie Grethen, she brings these explorations into dialogue, weaving images and words into a work about body, identity, transformation, and intimacy. Sharing such personal texts and photographs requires courage and support. Photography: Elodie Grethen. Graphic design & editing: Katharina Griesbacher-Tafner. Fine typography: Irmi Benezeder. Creative consulting: Ana Barros. Proofreading: Gisela Selbach. Artist & publisher: Anna Riess. Thanks to a large crowdfunding community, this book was able to be financed. The book was printed in Austria.

Andi Galdi Vinko – Sorry I Gave Birth I Disappeared But Now I’m Back (2022)

Andi Galdi Vinko, is an internationally acclaimed artist working in photography. She studied visual arts at Moholy Nagy University of Art in Budapest and at Esag Penninghen in Paris and art history and aesthetics at ELTE in Budapest. Her work draws visual analogies between intensely personal and intimate experiences of motherhood and womanhood and universal human experiences of coming of age, ageing, loss, and the conflict between western and eastern European ideologies.

Historically, the art world has treated motherhood as a taboo, often forcing women to choose between professional success and family. With award age limits frequently set at 35, the pressure of a “biological clock” often clashes with the critical years of career building. For Andi Galdi Vinko, the reality of motherhood proved to be far messier and more unpredictable than the sanitized versions depicted in male-dominated art. Transitioning from an emerging artist to a mother of two means working on borrowed time and navigating the guilt of a non-linear CV. This body of work (2016–2022) explores the tension between universal experience and personal isolation. It questions how such a common journey can remain so lonely, examining the loss of freedom and identity through the lens of hormones, domesticity, and the physical body. Ultimately, the work serves as a record of “becoming”—an attempt to reconcile the artist with the mother.

Mother Tongue Magazine (Issue 10, 2026)

Mother Tongue is a biannual print magazine that explores modern motherhood through the lens of art, sex, politics, and culture. Rather than focusing on parenting advice, it prioritizes the nuanced lives of women. Edited by Melissa Goldstein and Natalia Rachlin and designed by Vanessa Saba, the publication operates across the UK and US.

Issue 10 of Mother Tongue is an action-packed adventure into the pungent world of weed nuns; a swift yet thoughtful exploration of the political battleground that is American motherhood; an artful view of what it looks like when the fountain of female pleasure is quite literally put under the microscope! Across 128 jam-packed pages, we find ourselves painting with Lucy Liu, bowling with Jenny Slate and getting into bed with Tracey Emin, as you do. Separately, we learn about the clitoris in all its (surprisingly large!) glory, get a vocabulary lesson from Kathryn Grody, and see what happens when Jane Goodall tells you to have one or two children. Cigarettes are fetishized, spliffs donated to worthy causes, and horror movies devoured, as we then dive into the cruelty of menstrual inequity in the US carceral system and confront the dualities of being Iranian-American in this moment of global tumult. We are reminded that endings can be beginnings in disguise, that justice is a lifelong pursuit, and that ignoring pain is not the same thing as healing. We also learn that the fight for a more stable, more decent world is just a continued (uphill!) battle, not something that can be won once and for all (according to Amber Tamblyn); contemplate the rollercoaster ride of ambition in midlife; assess the reliability of gossip; and turn to Erykah Badu for advice about baby daddies and the illusion of having it all.