Archives, Research, and Lesbian Cultures (ARCL) Collection, Paris
Archives, Research, and Lesbian Cultures (ARCL) Collection, Paris
Bétonsalon
“Bringing the Archives Out of the Closet: Sharing Queer Histories Between Activist and Artistic Practices”; Faustine Besançon, performer and PhD student, Paris 8 University
This talk will offer an opportunity to look back on two years of practice-based research exploring queer—and more specifically lesbian—archival practices. Behind the complexity of the issues raised by archives lies a simpler question: which stories do we tell, and how do we tell them? The presentation will trace fragments of the materials encountered, address the ethical questions that have emerged, and share the doubts and impulses that shape the ongoing process of this research-creation project—one that moves between the stages of contemporary performance and the basement of the Archives Recherches Cultures Lesbiennes in Paris
Faustine Besançon
Faustine Besançon is a performance artist and PhD candidate in gender studies, specialising in the arts, under the supervision of Hélène Marquié at Paris 8 University since September 2023. Their practice-based research explores performance as a means of creating new forms of archives and memory — living, affective ones — centred on the histories of gender and sexual minorities.
Their performance work combines elements of drag and academic research to reclaim, reimagine, and embody lesbian stories they wish had been told to them.
In 2021, they co-founded the collective La Poulpe, with which they organise TransPédéBiGouines performance nights.Faustine Besançon est performeur·se et doctorant·e en études de genre spécialité arts, sous la direction d’Hélène Marquié à l’université Paris 8 depuis septembre 2023. Sa recherche-création s’intéresse à la performance comme moyen de créer de nouvelles archives et mémoires, dans une dimension vivante et affectée, centrées sur une histoire des minorités de genre et sexuelles. Sa pratique de la performance mêle les outils du drag à ceux de la recherche pour se réapproprier, fictionner et incarner les histoires lesbiennes qu’elle aurait rêvé qu’on lui raconte. Dès 2021, elle cofonde le collectif La Poulpe, avec lequel elle crée des soirées de performances TransPédéBiGouines.
Lecture series conceived by Clélia Barbut, in partnership with Université Paris 8 Vincennes–Saint-Denis and Bétonsalon – Art and Research Center.
