Historical traces of lesbian and queer artistic life are numerous, dating since at least the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yet these narratives remain in the margins of conventional art-historical writing and are often ignored or downplayed within artists’ biographies.  The result is a history that turns a blind eye to queer histories.

Yet many artists lived their identities to the full, and let these identities influence their work. Rosa Bonheur, Lotte Laserstein, Romaine Brooks, Marie Laurencin, Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe, Marlow Moss, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moor, or Barbara Hammer, to name but a few, are found throughout art history and contemporary lesbian and queer cultures.

Lesbian archives represent an essential site of research for the resurrection of these stories and the creation of feminist art history. Historical, personal and emotional narratives intersect in and around these archives, enlightening the past and helping us to understand the present.

AWARE invites Isabelle Sentis for an “archival speed dating” workshop. Suggested as an occasion for exchange and discovery inspired by a speed dating format, you will have the opportunity to get to know archival “partners” and investigate a provided document with the help of precise instructions.
These archives hold memories of lesbian and queer artists and cultures. The experience offers a historical discovery through archival materials, where cultural memory and the history of sexuality intersect.

Following the workshop, a public discussion with Faustine Besançon will open up a dialogue on the subjects of archival practices and writing an LGBTQI history of art, something often relegated to the margins of the academic world.

The event will be held in French.