A Claude Cahun Evening

An evening of screenings, readings and discussion presented by:

• Susan de Muth - translator of Cahun’s 1930 masterpiece Aveux non Avenus ‘Cancelled Confessions’
• Sarah Pucill - whose film ‘Magic Mirror’ (16mm, bw, 75min, 2013) premiered at Tate Modern, and creates a dialogue with Cahun's images and words - see details below
• Marcia Farquhar - who will read from Cahun’s text
• Nichola Bruce - whose short ‘Flayed Soul’ is based on a Cahun poem

The first half of the evening will comprise of projected photomontages from 'Cancelled Confessions’, readings from the book and discussion among participants about Cahun and Moore’s life and work, their contemporary relevance, activism, and place in contemporary LGBTQ+ discourse.

The second part of the evening we are delighted to host a special screening of short film ‘Flayed Soul’ by local filmmaker Nichola Bruce followed by full length screening of ‘Magic Mirror’ (or ‘Confessions to the Mirror’ by Sarah Pucill which combines a re-staging of the French Surrealist artist Claude Cahun’s black and white photographs with selected extracts from her book Aveux non avenus (1930, Confessions Denied).

In Surrealist kaleidoscopic fashion the film creates a weave between image and word, exploring the links between Cahun’s photographs and writing as well as between those of the films of Sarah Pucill, as both artists share similar iconography and concerns.

Screening will be followed by Q&A.

"Cahun was a pioneer of gender-bending role-playing…eerily ahead of her time she has attracted an almost cult-like following" - David Bowie

About your hosts:

• Marcia Farquhar is known for her work in performance, installation, object making and sound works. Her site-specific events have been staged and exhibited internationally in museums and galleries, as well as in kitchen showrooms, pubs, parks and leisure centres. In 2021 she published a fragmented memoir, Pushing 60. Marcia is also part of the Stories in Transit team, established by Marina Warner, working with refugees and the host community of Palermo. In September this year she will be performing at the International Performance Art Giswil 2024.
• Artist filmmaker Sarah Pucill has been making films since 1990 that have been shown in gallery museums and won awards at Festivals internationally.  The majority of her films take place within the confines of a domestic pace, where the grounded reality of the home itself becomes a portal to a complex and multi-layered psychic realm.  Pucill's two long 16mm films re-stage Cahun's photographs with her writing;  'Magic Mirror' explores Cahun's major text 'Disavowals' (1930), and  'Confessions to the Mirror' (2016) explores Cahun's second major text 'Confessions to the Mirror' (1952-54).  Her films are distributed by LUX.
• Nichola Bruce (born 1953) is a British avant-garde film director, cinematographer, screen writer and artist. Bruce uses an artistic approach to filmmaking alongside the use of digital technologies. Her use of digital film is accredited to the speed, creativity, and multi-layering that can be accessed through the technology.
• Susan de Muth is a journalist, writer and translator specialising in surrealism, Dada and Russian futurism.

Copies of the newly republished 'Cancelled Confessions or Disavowals' and giclée exhibition quality prints of the photomontages will be available to purchase.

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