QUEER EXPATS OF PARIS
This chapter of The Grave Project titled 'Queer Expats of Paris' examines the lives and deaths of the queer diaspora located in Paris. Each person in the series chose to live their life at some point in Paris, often escaping restrictive conditions in their place of birth.
Bella Darvi
Escaping from the panic of Poland you headed to Paris, but the threat was always close. Later, Mr. and Mrs. Zanuck fell for your new French ways. They gave you a career, you gave them your name. But being an ‘Egyptian’ in Hollywood didn’t last long. Hitting the tables hard in Monaco helped numb the failure but brought a bigger debt than expected.
Cimetière Parisien de Bagneux, Paris, France, 2019
Susan Sontag
Escaping absent parents you took refuge in books. After ten days at university you were married and David was on the way. America couldn’t contain your lust for life so your radical will led you to an interpretation of Paris. Your sexual awakening started with ‘H’ and ended with Leibovitz with a lot of beauty in between. “She doesn’t even listen to rock”.
Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris, France, 2019
Gisèle Freund
Escaping the pressure of both being Jewish and a socialist you headed for Paris on advice from Walter Benjamin, arriving with your negatives strapped to your body. Your attraction for the Left Bank led you into the fold of Paris’ feminist lesbian scene where Adrianna opened her door. Wolf, Satre, Mitterrand and Joyce were just a few of the intelligentsia that you captured. Despite the ordeals of your younger days you kept shooting.
Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris, France, 2019
Chantal Akerman
Escaping your parent’s past you embraced the celluloid reality of motherly enmeshment. You documented the stifling conditions of daily domestic life of the female existence. Rejecting both critics and societies assumed agenda you created your own slow lens. A year after your mother passed there were no more home movies to be made.
Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France, 2019
Isadora Duncan
Escaping extreme poverty into the world of freeing movement started your life on the stage. You flouted traditional morality with your red spirit and passion for playing for both teams. You were the ‘mother of dance’ but also the mother of tragedy. Despite drowning in sorrow you still stitched together a global legacy. Ultimately your flowing couture both defined and defeated you.
Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France, 2019
Gertrude Stein
Escaping the rigid ways of the medical patriarchy you penetrated the Paris art scene. You used your inheritance to support the fledgling careers of the future elite. Your’s and Alice’s salon became the centre for an emerging gay identity. Despite your queerness and Jewishness you collaborated with Vichy France, confusing everyone.
Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France, 2019
Vaslav Nijinsky
Escaping your mind into your vocation got you out of Russia. You gave Sergei your body and he made you a star. Your sexual gestures in Spring caused riots in Paris. While trapped on a boat you married your stalker, despite not sharing a language. Retiring before 30, schizophrenia and heterosexuality stole your last years.
Montmartre Cemetery, Paris, France, 2019
Toyen
Escaping the limitations of Czechoslovakia because of your love of anarchy you found a new persona in the Paris Surrealist art scene. Being a citizen was more important than conforming to societies expectations on your sex. Ambiguous about gender but blatant about eroticism you made your own way among the surrealist patriarchy.
Batignolles Cemetery, Paris, France, 2019
Natalie Clifford Barney
Escaping the boredom of American high society for the literary world of Paris started your life as ‘l’Amazone’. Your salon was frequented for sixty years by queer voices such as Barnes, Stein, Capote and Vidal who enjoyed your pacifist patronage. Loving Renee Vivien ended in tragedy but your relationship with Romaine lasted half a century.
Passy Cemetery, Paris, France, 2019
Renée Vivien
Escaping the pressures of a fast fortune into the queer bohemia of Paris, you fell for Natalie and the hedonistic lifestyle. After Clifford Barney broke your heart the poetic sadomasochistic fantasies of your pen turned into reality. Drinking laudanum covered in flowers didn’t solve your problems but refusing to eat put an end to it all.
Passy Cemetery, Paris, France, 2019