Focus

“Staging one’s life”: autofictions by women artists
Pictural genres reinvested
30.03.2019 | Cassandre Langlois

“All my work of the last fifty years, all my subjects, have found their inspiration in my childhood”, Louise Bourgeois once said (1911-2010; Louise Bourgeois. Album, New York, Peter Blum, 1994). When the works of an artist come to grips with childhood trauma, they become repositories of a “true” and “fantasised” life.

Throughout the 1970s, a new genre combining fiction and autobiography began to come into use. It was called autofiction, a word coined by the writer Serge Doubrovsky in 1977. In literature, autofiction enables the author, who is also both the narrator and the main character, to recount his or her life in a novelised form. In the field of visual arts, several artists have used this process in which they become both players and creators in a narration that combines fiction and reality, while also maintaining an ambiguity as to the truthfulness of the facts depicted.

This is the case for Sophie Calle (b. 1953), who began to create factual narration and to take an interest in the notion of intimacy as early as 1978 by openly staging elements from her own life in writing and photography. For No Sex Last Night (1992), she asked her partner Greg Shephard to film their relationship. In doing so, the artist constructed her own “individual mythology”, an expression used by Harald Szeemann to describe one of the sections of documenta 5 Kassel in 1972. The 1970s would come to be known for the large number of works in which artists explored their personal lives; Annette Messager (b. 1943), for instance, used the first person form in the titles of her “album-collections” – Mes clichés témoins [Control Snapshots, 1971-1973], Mes jalousies [My Jealousies, 1972] – and pieces from the 1980s – Mes trophées [My Trophies, 1987], Mes petites effigies [My Little Effigies, 1988], and Mes vœux [My Vows, 1989].

In their process of documenting the artist’s life, Florence Paradeis’ (b. 1964) photographs are populated by members of her circle of family and friends staged in fake tableaux of their everyday activities. As for Florence Chevallier (b. 1955), her existentialist soul-searching leads her to stage her own body, revealing its most secret facets.

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1911 — France | 2010 — United States
Louise Bourgeois - AWARE

Louise Bourgeois

1953 | France
Sophie Calle - AWARE

Sophie Calle

1943 | France
Annette Messager - AWARE

Annette Messager

1955 | Morocco
Florence Chevallier - AWARE

Florence Chevallier

1964 | France
Florence Paradeis - AWARE

Florence Paradeis

1950 | United States
Martine Aballéa - AWARE

Martine Aballéa

1935 | UNITED STATES
Eleanor Antin - AWARE

Eleanor Antin

1935 — 1981 | France
Claude  Batho - AWARE

Claude Batho

1953 | United States
Nan Goldin - AWARE

Nan Goldin

1938 — 2016 | Croatia
Nives  Kavurić-Kurtović - AWARE

Nives Kavurić-Kurtović

1958 — 1981 | United States
Francesca Woodman - AWARE

Francesca Woodman

1943 | United States
Howardena  Pindell - AWARE

Howardena Pindell

1933 | Italy
Lucia Marcucci - AWARE

Lucia Marcucci

1950 — Belgium | 2015 — France
Chantal Akerman - AWARE

Chantal Akerman

1954 | United States
Annie Sprinkle (aka Ellen F. Steinberg) - AWARE

Annie Sprinkle (aka Ellen F. Steinberg)

1864 — 1952 | United States
Frances Benjamin Johnston - AWARE

Frances Benjamin Johnston

1960 | France
Nathalie Talec - AWARE

Nathalie Talec

1963 | Poland
Katarzyna Kozyra - AWARE

Katarzyna Kozyra

1951 | États-Unis
Cindy Sherman - AWARE

Cindy Sherman

1947 | Palestina
Juhaina Habibi Kandalaft - AWARE

Juhaina Habibi Kandalaft

1920 — 1960 | Australia
Joy Hester - AWARE

Joy Hester

1969 | Canada
Skawennati - AWARE

Skawennati

1948 | Israel
Haya Graetz-Ran - AWARE

Haya Graetz-Ran

1969 | Russia
Louisa Babari - AWARE

Louisa Babari

1969 | Austria
Barbara Breitenfellner - AWARE

Barbara Breitenfellner

1935 | Mexico
Julia López - AWARE

Julia López

1973 | Lebanon
Lina Jabbour - AWARE

Lina Jabbour

1951 | Singapore
Amanda Heng - AWARE

Amanda Heng

1957 | Thaïlande
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook - AWARE

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook

1951 | Israel
Adina Bar-On - AWARE

Adina Bar-On

1965 — 2024 | Turkey
Gülçin Aksoy - AWARE

Gülçin Aksoy

1946 | Spain
Eulàlia Grau - AWARE

Eulàlia Grau

1973 | Ukraine
Oksana Briukhovetska - AWARE

Oksana Briukhovetska

1969 | United States
Chantal  Joffe - AWARE

Chantal Joffe

1945 | United Kingdom
Maggi Hambling - AWARE

Maggi Hambling

1956 — 2008 | Colombia
María Teresa Hincapié - AWARE

María Teresa Hincapié

1963 | Singapore
Mastura Abdul Rahman - AWARE

Mastura Abdul Rahman

1945 — 2023 | United States
Gail Tremblay - AWARE

Gail Tremblay

1933 — 2007 | Lithuania
Marija Teresė Rožanskaitė - AWARE

Marija Teresė Rožanskaitė

1906 — Russian Empire (now Lithuania) | 1998 — Lithuania
Veronika Šleivytė - AWARE

Veronika Šleivytė

1943 — 2014 | United-States of America
Rosemary  Mayer - AWARE

Rosemary Mayer

1974 | Poland
Aneta Grzeszykowska - AWARE

Aneta Grzeszykowska

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