Round-table
From left to right: Chemin du Montparnasse, © Margot Montigny/AWARE; Portrait of Amelia Jones; Design by Lisa Sturacci studio, © AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research & Exhibitions.
Address
Villa Vassilieff
21, avenue du Maine
75015 Paris
21, avenue du Maine
75015 Paris
Accessibility
Montparnasse – Bienvenüe metro station, Exit 2, Lines 4, 6, 12 and 13
Villa Vassilieff is accessible to visitors using wheeled devices or who have mobility difficulties thanks to special facilities (access ramp, adapted toilets, and a lift).
In addition, several reserved parking spaces are available close to the Villa Vassilieff:
• in front of 4 rue d’Alençon, 75015 Paris
• in front of 7 rue Antoine Bourdelle, 75015 Paris
• in front of 23 rue de l’Arrivée, 75015 Paris
Consult the map of adapted parking spaces in Paris here.
The traces of lesbian and queer artistic life are numerous, at least since the 19th and 20th centuries. However, these narratives remain on the margins of conventional art history, often rendered invisible within the very biographies of the artists, forcing history to adopt a narrow perspective. AWARE proposes a series of events focusing on Lesbian and Queer Presences in the history of 19th- and 20th-century art.
Many of these artists lived their identities to the fullest, allowing these identities to influence their work. Figures such as Rosa Bonheur, Lotte Laserstein, Romaine Brooks, Marie Laurencin, Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe, Marlow Moss, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, or more recently Barbara Hammer and Laura Aguilar, to name just a few, have significantly shaped contemporary lesbian and queer art history and culture. Questioning lesbian visibility and presence means embracing the complexity and reality of the histories, creations, and cultural legacies of these artists.
On December 6, 2024, AWARE invites you to the fourth event of the Lesbian Presence(s) Cycle, “Disorienting Feminism”. The evening will feature a talk by art historian Amelia Jones, titled “Disorienting Feminism with ‘Lesbian Presence’ in Art”, followed by the screening of the short film “Herman@s (Les Adelphes)” directed by the artist H·Alix Sanyas.
“This Lecture addresses the “disorienting” effect of lesboqueer people and their creative practices in mainstream modernist art histories as well as in feminist accounts and discourses of contemporary art. Drawing on the work of Sara Ahmed and Saidiya Hartman, I focus on how lesbians and queer/trans female-identified people trouble the cultural and artistic systems of their times and disorient historical formations and narratives. Rather than ignoring or incorporating these disturbances, I will argue that historians, curators, and theorists can embrace the frictions they introduce into our systems, developing new ways of describing their contributions to visual arts histories and thereby changing our language and assumptions. These arguments will expand in relation to early twentieth-century histories of “Wayward Lives” in the art, music, and literary worlds, and build on the artwork of Susan Silton, Vaginal Davis, Laura Aguilar, Zanele Muholi, and the Toxic Titties and Cassils to make these points.” (Amelia Jones)
Alix Sanyas’ film “Herman@s (Les Adelphes)” (28min) is an experimental documentary, that follows its main character through their incorporations: One night in October 2011, a mysterious dream gives birth to Cuco, a transgender latex pirate.
This series of events is conceived by Ana Bordenave, with the assistance of Naemi Piecuch.
Practical information
Friday, December 6, 2024, from 6:00 pm
The event will be held in English
Free registration here.
Programme
Upcoming
Fri. 06 December 2024
Villa Vassilieff
Villa Vassilieff
"Disorienting feminism", with Amelia Jones followed by a screening of H·Alix Sanyas
Past
Thu. 27 June 2024
Villa Vassilieff
Villa Vassilieff
5:30 pm
"Archival speed dating", with Isabelle Sentis and Faustine Besançon
Thu. 10 October 2024
Villa Vassilieff
Villa Vassilieff
6:00 pm
"Working with image, building the identity", with Catherine Gonnard, Marine Kisiel and Lesbian Archives
Read more
Screening of The Female Closet (1998, 57min) by Barbara Hammer
Read less
Tue. 12 November 2024
Villa Vassilieff
Villa Vassilieff
6:00 pm
"Thinking the Community Through Photographic Practice", with Hélène Giannecchini, Marie Docher, Aurélie Journée-Duez, Félixe Kazi-Tani and Nanténé Traoré
Amelia Jones
Professor of Art and Design and Associate Dean for Studies and Research, Chair of Critical Studies at the Roski School of Art and Design, University of Southern California, USA. Amelia Jones is also a curator and specialist in contemporary art, body art, performance art, gender studies, and feminism. Her significant publications in the field of feminist and queer art history include Body Art/Performing the Subject (1998), The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (2003), Otherwise: Imagining Queer Feminist Art Histories (2016), and, most recently, In Between Subjects: A Critical Genealogy of Queer Performance (2021). Her research explores the very notion of performance in queer lives, examining the links between queer subcultures, activism, and contemporary art.
H·Alix Sanyas
After graduating with a BTS in 2009 (Senior Technologists Certificate) in graphic design with a focus on print, H·Alix Sanyas pursued further studies at École Estienne in Paris, earning a DSAA (Diploma in Applied Arts) in Medical and Scientific Illustration in 2011. They continued their studies at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, where they obtained a DNAP (Diploma in Visual Arts) in 2013) and a DNSEP (National Diploma of Visual Expression, Masters-level) in 2015). H·Alix Sanyas is committed to questions of pedagogy and transmission. They taught from 2017 to 2024 at Campus Fonderie de l’Image in Bagnolet, focusing on the DnMade graphic design program, specifically in the option “Concepts and Printed Objects” track. In 2018, they co-founded the inclusive typography collective Bye Bye Binary and has been involved as an activist and graphic designer in numerous collectives since 2010: These include (PASTT (2010), Existrans Inter (2010-2012), TDOR (2010-2012), OUTrans (2010-2014, and 2019-2024), CLAQ (2017-2018), BAAM (2018), Bye Bye Binary (2018-2024), GLAM (2023-2024), and #MeTooArtContemporain (2024). In recognition of their contributions, H·Alix Sanyas won the Utopi·e prize in 2022.Their artistic practice has been featured in numerous exhibitions, held in spaces such as La Station Gare des Mines and 6b in 2024, Frac des Pays de la Loire in 2024, Frac MECA in 2023, Cité Internationale des Arts in 2023, Centre d’art BBB in 2023, Galerie Marcelle Alix, Sultana, Air de Paris in 2023, Centre Culturel Suisse in 2021, Glassbox in 2019, Biennale du Design de Saint-Étienne in 2019, and Glassbox Sud in 2019. Their documentary work has also been widely recognized in France and internationally: The documentary Herman@s (Les Adelphes) received numerous awards between 2021 and 2023 including Prix Perspective du Moulin D’Andé – Les Écrans Documentaires, Best Direction at the Las Vegas Queer Arts Film Festival, the Pride Award at Sicilia Queer Film Festival, Streen Pride at Divine Queer Film Festival, Best LGBTQI+ Documentary at Queer Stories, and a Special Mention at Some Prefer Cake. H·Alix Sanyas is working on their next creative documentary Bye Bye Binary & La Drammaire Française.
