p. 39 de Nina Wakeford à la Cité internationale des arts

Nina Wakeford uses performance, installation and moving images to address the unresolved struggles of past social movements and the challenges sparked by their reactivation. Her inspiration comes from historical archives, but also from her friends, lovers and their obsessions.

This project began with the death of a friend, Anna Livia Brawn, and a forgotten book. Anna had translated into English a novel written in 1930 by an openly lesbian Parisian author, Lucie Delarus-Mardrus. In the novel, the main character lives as both a man and a woman. The author includes caricatures of bourgeois lesbian “celebrities”, some known for sharing intimate moments during horse rides in the Bois de Boulogne. Yet the author died almost penniless, having alienated family and friends by refusing to end her relationship with a music-hall singer with a working-class Parisian accent and “vulgar language”. After finally finding a first edition of the novel at the Librairie Vignes in Paris, Nina felt she was reconnecting with Anna.

Responding to the challenges of reinterpreting and recounting fleeting encounters between women, and driven by a love of books, Nina brings together a collection of recently gathered materials, sung, spoken and staged.

Nina Wakeford (United Kingdom) is in residence through the 2–12 programme.

Marais site → Vitrine

Cité internationale des arts