Claude Cahun is an unmatchable figure. If you just try to approach her graphic and photographic modalities, or the sharp and unfathomable edge of her writing, you will find yourself immersed in an abysmal, critical, and secret personal journey, a perennial generator of possible otherness. I watched myself as I moved around the artist’s materials, as I contained my disorientation and put it into dialogue with the words of a guide; words that resonate in me like principles, and principles that show me bodily paths and sensitivities. That is, Japanese dancer Masaki Iwana (1945-2020) and my research into his Butoh Blanc.
“It will be something that is indescribably obscure and yet securely contains lawyers of ondulation underneath rather like waves on the surface of a dark swamp.”
(Butoh- A Vector Crushed by Once’s Own Teeth, 1989, Archivio Masaki Iwana)
“Once expressor is taken away the self or subject quite naturally emerges. In other words, the expressor’s true presence replaces expression.”
(The Body and Dacing at the Core of Being Left Behind, 1992, Archivio Masaki Iwana)
I would like to share performative signs about these fundamentals, and insights into Claude Cahun’s art, as well as images, sounds and methodological questions. There are no answers, but solitary or sympathetic paths. There are places, actual or not, where we can gather to be truthful and take one more step together.
