Images from the great ‘Delphine Seyrig Defiant Muses ‘exhibition. The greatness of the exhibition is in conveying a range of feminist practices, collective and social, international, ranging from issues on abortion to sex work to trans performances of classic American plays, to the liberation of video as form, to the value even of unproduced feminist film projects (Calamity Jane). And a range of relationships between women (Duras, Ulrike Ottinger, Agnès Varda, Simone de Beauvoir and so many more whose names don´t mean as much to me. I was delighted to see Jean Genet speaking up for Angela Davis and the Black Panthers as part of the work produced by Seyrig and the feminist collectives she was a part of.

Here is the program:

Plus some more images and text I thought some of you might find interesting:

The English title refers partly to the Insoumuses, the women’s video collective collective consisting of Carole Roussopoulos, Delphine Seyrig, and Ioana Wieder. And the Insoumuses itself referenced the Insoumises, which Kate Lister’s wonderful book, Harlots, Whores and Hackabouts: A History of Sex for Sale, informs us is the name for unregistered sex workers in Paris: ‘The French system of regulation was clearly successful in gathering data, but it was a a failure, nonetheless. The restrictions were so severe, and the compulsory gynaecological examinations so unpopular, that many women simply did not register. Unregistered sex workers , or insoumises, sold sex on the street, in bars, in hotels or in unregistered brothels known as maisons de rendez-vous. The police regularly raided addresses they suspected of operating illegaly and had powers to arrest women suspected of being insoumise. If caught, women would be automatically registered and forcibly examined for sings of disease. Once registered, it was very difficult to become unregistered. (p.201).

José Arroyo