Carolee Schneemann is renowned for her fundamental contribution to American body art and her itinerary oscillating between painting, happening and Fluxus. Combining films based on Dionysian sexuality (Meatjoy, 1964) and a cinematic eroticism founded on the correspondence between seeing and feeling, the exchange of glances far from the objectification and fetishization of women (Fuses, 1965), she conducts research into taboos, “vulvar space” and a visceral experience of the flesh (Interior Scroll, 1975, Body collage). Carolee Schneemann also wrote one of the first anti-Vietnam War films (Viet Flake, 1965).

Director, producer and actress Maria Beatty‘s work as a documentary filmmaker and video artist explores female sexuality and fetishism. Her superb opuses sketch out a powerful aesthetic of fantasy, inspired in particular by German expressionist cinema and American film noir.

Interior Scroll – The Cave

by Carolee Schneemann et Maria Beatty (1975-1995, 7:30 min)

In front of Maria Beatty’s camera, Carolee Schneemann and seven other women re-enact the famous performance created by Schneemann in 1975, “Interior Scroll”, where, perched on a long table, she took model poses, and pulled out of her vagina a long piece of paper on which was written the beginning of a book she never wrote Cézanne was a great artist.