Past Events
Electric Muses UK tour
8th - 10th July 2022
A women-led evening of surrealist films and technologically-enhanced live music performed by Aurora Engine and Bell Lungs.
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Featuring films by Germaine Dulac, Maya Deren, Sarah Pucill and Barbara Hammer, the programme celebrates women working in creative technology spanning across two centuries, bringing their overlooked input into the public eye.
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This unique event will tour three venues in July 2022 - Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Tickets are available on a sliding scale.
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This tour is part of Film Feels Curious, a UK-wide cinema season, supported by the National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network.
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MUSES REDEFINED:
Demythologising my mother, Leonora Carrington
Tuesday 6th April 2021
6pm
In anticipation of 'The Invisible Painting: My Memoir of Leonora Carrington', The Debutante will be joined by Leonora's grandson and son.
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Since her death in 2011, the legendary Surrealist Leonora Carrington has been reconstructed and reinvented many times over. In this book, Gabriel Weisz Carrington draws on remembered conversations and events to demythologise his mother, revealing the woman and the artist behind the iconic persona [...] A textured portrait emerges from conversations, memories, stories and Leonora's engagement with the books that she read. Using the act of writing to process and understand the death of his mother, the author has produced a moving and fascinating account of life, art, love and loss.
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LOOKING AT FEMININITY SYMPODCAST
Panel 5: 'Musings of the Debutante Coven
Listen to The Debutante editors explore the legacies of surrealism within contemporary practice, alongside re-framing notions of the ‘female muse’ and heterosexual bodies.
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Intersectional Feminism
Reading group
Jan - April 2021
Sundays 6pm
Sunday 28th February
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María Magdalena Campos Pons’ exhibition ‘Alchemy of the Soul’ & ‘Art and Diaspora:’ A Conversation with María Magdalena Campos Pons’
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Sunday 28th March
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‘The Market for Female Surrealists Has Finally Reached a Tipping Point’
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Sunday 25th April
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‘Unmaksing Adrienne Fidelin: Picasso, Man Ray and the (In)visibility of Racial Difference’ & ‘Yo, Adrienne’
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MUSES REDEFINED:
A Feminist Marvellous
Sunday 13th September 2020
6pm
In our upcoming installment in the webinar series 'MUSES REDEFINED', The Debutante will be joined by Dr Catriona McAra, University Curator at Leeds Arts University. Catriona, who specialises in the legacies of women surrealists in contemporary practice, coined the term "feminist marvellous" to describe Leonora Carrington's influence on creative practitioners today.
Her theorisation of a feminist marvellous strikes a chord with The Debutante project, which strives to dislodge phallogocentric writings of surrealist art history.
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Tickets via Eventbrite.
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Intersectional Feminism
Reading group
July - October 2020
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Session 1 - The Afrosurreal Manifesto, D. Scott Miller
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Session 2 - The Great Camouflage, Suzanne Cesaire
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Session 3 - Towards a Decolonial Feminism, Maria Lugones
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Session 4 - The Other Side of Intercultural Performance, Coco Fusco
MUSES REDEFINED:
Feminist-Surrealist Webinars featuring Penny Slinger
Sunday 19th July 2020
6pm
Join the editors of The Debutante for an evening of feminist-surrealist exploration with artist Penny Slinger.
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During her respective lockdown in California, Penny has been creating intriguing digital photomontages and writing poetry in response to her feelings of psychological entrapment while self-isolating.
As well as discussing her most recent artwork, and what it means to redefine the muse, there will be space to ask Penny your own questions about feminist-surrealism.
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The Avant-Garde Indoors
Friday29th May 2020
6pm
A special event in collaboration with our friends at Drawing Life Glasgow.
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The Debutante presents ‘The Avant-Garde Indoors’, a Drawing Life takeover session. Join us for an evening of feminist-surrealist portraiture, in which models will be recreating iconic indoor shots by the likes of Kati Horna, Claude Cahun and Yayoi Kusama.
Learn about these wonderful artists and their surrealist influences while you draw, as The Debutante co-editors will walk you through their lives and legacies. Profits made from this event will go towards funding issue 02 of The Debutante, and 10% towards Women’s Aid Scotland.
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Electric Muses
Friday6th March 2020
7pm
The Debutante - in collaboration with Leith theatre, Cinetopia, Aurora Engine and Bell Lungs - presents ELECTRIC MUSES: An Evening of Feminist Surrealist Film celebrating women working in film and music.
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In honour of International Women’s Day, join us in the Thomas Morton Hall from 7pm to celebrate women working in creative technology spanning across two centuries, bringing their overlooked input into the public eye. Since the beginning of the birth of cinema, women filmmakers have used this “electric” art form to tell their stories.
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Featuring Work From:
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Sarah Pucill
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Kelsey Ashe
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Germaine Dulac
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Live Music from Aurora Engine and Bell Lungs.
The Feminist-Surrealist Manifesto
Issue 01 Launch
Friday 24th January 2020
Join The Debutante editors for the launch of issue 1: A Feminist-Surrealist Manifesto.
Room 20 of the Modern One displays much of the gallery's surrealist collection, including exciting new acquisitions of work by Leonora Carrington, Toyen and Dorothea Tanning.
We invite you to a 'surreal' evening full of wine and creative exploration in Edinburgh.