Ruth Mountaingrove, Untitled (Bath House), undated. Coll309 Ruth Mountaingrove Photographs, Special Collections and University Archives, Oregon.
Ruth Mountaingrove, Untitled (Two women constructing a building), Undated. Coll 309 Ruth Mountaingrove Photographs, Special Collections and University Archives, Oregon.
Ruth Mountaingrove, Untitled (Bath House), undated. Coll309 Ruth Mountaingrove Photographs, Special Collections and University Archives, Oregon.
Ruth Mountaingrove, Untitled (Two women constructing a building), Undated. Coll 309 Ruth Mountaingrove Photographs, Special Collections and University Archives, Oregon.
Discussion with Milena Charbit and Louise Toth, moderated by Vincent Enjalbert
As part of the Pride Festival of the 12th, 13th, and 14th arrondissements.
In dialogue with the exhibition “A Shepherd’s Heart” by the artist and shepherd Orla Barry, this event brings together the research of Louise Toth and Milena Charbit on the issues of representation and storytelling within lesbian communities that settled in rural areas from the 1970s onward to develop, autonomously, new ways of living together. Through the study of writing, photography, and experimental architectural practices developed by these collectives, the event will revisit the traces and archives of these community memories while connecting them to contemporary feminist and queer struggles and reflections.
Milena Charbit
Milena Charbit is an architect and researcher at LéaV (ENSA-V). She teaches at ENSA Versailles, where she is also pursuing a PhD in partnership with the Casa de Velázquez. Her research practice is multifaceted and takes shape through various forms of dissemination (exhibition curation, readings, performances, books, architectural projects, writing workshops, installations, etc.). Her current research focuses on lesbian architectures, the subject of her recent book Architectures lesbiennes. Subversions du lien, de l’intime et de l’espace (2025), published by Shed Publishing.
Louise Toth
Louise Toth is currently pursuing a PhD in Gender Studies at Bordeaux Montaigne University, focusing on notions of community and collective visual practices, particularly within rural separatist lesbian communities in Oregon. She participated in the translation and editing of the anthology of U.S. radical lesbian texts, Le Mouvement féministe est un complot lesbien (2025), published by Rotolux Press; co-curated the exhibition “Country Lesbians. An Archive of the Womanshare Collective” presented at Shmorévaz (Paris) in 2024; and contributed to the re-edition of the eponymous book, co-published by Ness Books and Shmooks.
