Doris Stauffer paved the way for the women who came – and still come – after her. In the 1960s, she put together everyday objects like buttons, doilies, utensils, and toys to create artworks whose female-coded materiality became a site for standing up to the inequalities of a patriarchal society. Art and life came together in Doris Stauffer’s creative practice. She tore down the walls between the various aspects of her life as a mother, housewife, teacher and artist, marrying fine art and craftsmanship, professional and amateur practice, individuality and the collective, the personal and the political. Because art also happens in the streets. She joined the feminist struggle, becoming involved in the Frauenbefreiungsbewegung, the Swiss women’s lib movement. Her projects became collaborative and experimental, influencing her teaching at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts and her founding role at the Form und Farbe school, where teamwork is a core principle. At F+F, art is first and foremost a process. Stauffer’s interest in activities focusing on the space for reflection, participation and action rather than on the result led her to teach a “witch course” and produce decorated gingerbread, or “eat-art”, where the process of chewing and swallowing called the art world into question. This is just one of many paths to explore in the footsteps of an artist who was “untamed, angry, joyful and immortal”.

Doris Stauffer was born in Amden in 1934 and died in Zurich in 2017.