Alberta Pane Gallery is pleased to present the group show ‘Moi-même (faute de mieux)’ in its new Parisian space at 44 rue de Montmorency. The exhibit features works by Claude Cahun, Marie Denis, Romina De Novellis, Christian Fogarolli, Luciana Lamothe and João Vilhena.

The title of the exhibition refers to the part II of the autobiographical book “Aveux non avenus”, written between 1918-1929 by Claude Cahun. This book is a mixture of different genres of writing: diary, poetry, dreamlike and epistolary narratives, accompanied by photomontages created in collaboration with her life partner Suzanne Malherbe. This autobiographical and introspective book is a true journey in search of the self, a self-portrait, a quest for the possible definition of “who am I?”. With an indefinable, unclassifiable and non-linear writing style, where dream and reality constantly intersect, Claude Cahun wanders in the meanders of the Being without finding an answer to her questions. Thanks to this search, she provides us with a very profound reflection on existence.

Claude Cahun is a complex and enigmatic artist, whose work completely coincides with her life and is permeated with countless facets and obscure points yet to be revealed, with fascination and mystery, but also with great contemporaneity. This is not only because of the topics she addresses, but also because of the originality with which she uses a variety of mediums such as photography, writing, collage, and sculpture, but also disguise, transformation, performance and theatre. The strength of the works lies precisely in this incessant, obsessive and continuous search for one’s own identity, which, however, will never be found, as it is multiple, plural and indefinable.

The exhibition ‘Moi-même (faute de mieux)’ aims to bring Claude Cahun’s work into dialogue with the works of a number of gallery artists, in order to highlight the common threads that link this historical artist to those who are contemporary to us. The topics addressed by Claude Cahun, such as disguise, transformation, metamorphosis and questions of identity and gender, are also found in the work of Romina De Novellis, Marie Denis, Christian Fogarolli, Luciana Lamothe and João Vilhena. Moreover, the connections between the works of these six artists is also visible from an iconographic point of view, independently from the medium.