Close

Io sono mia / I am my own / Je suis à moi-même, 1976

Photogram from the film Graffiti, 1977 (related work)

arrow-right
0:00/0:00

Excerpt from the digital transfer of the Super 8 film
Collection of the artist

 

0:00/0:00

Excerpt from a guided tour of the exhibition Françoise Sullivan. The 1970s with Françoise Sullivan et Louise Déry, 2021, Galerie de l’UQAM

 

Io sono mia / I am my own / Je suis à moi-même, 1976

Digital transfer produced in 2020 from a Super 8 film, colour, no sound, 2min 37s
Concept, performance, and production: Françoise Sullivan
Image: unknown
Editing: Wayne Cullen
Collection of the artist

This brief performance action was found on a strip of 8mm film in Françoise Sullivan’s archive. It had never been shown, and the artist cannot identify where it was filmed any more precisely than that it was in Italy. The work’s title is a slogan commonly used during feminist demonstrations in Italy in the 1970s: “Io sono mia” (I am my own). In Rome, Sullivan had noticed it in scattered graffiti and caught it on film several times. Here, she traces the phrase in the sand in French, English and Italian. When it is erased by the waves, she writes it over again, but each time, it is washed away. The process is similar to the performances with blocked and unblocked doors and windows: an action based on traces must be endlessly started over again.