Daniel & Clara, two humans one artist on a journey exploring dimensions real and imagined, the results of which consist of moving image, photography, installation, letters and performance.

Since meeting in 2010 they have dedicated themselves to a shared life of creative exploration, they discarded their birth genders, nationality and family names to form a single artist. For them the artist’s role is to live creatively and explore the limitless possibilities of the imagination.

Their recent work focuses on the British countryside as a site for encounters with the mysterious, the eerie, the otherworldly and the unknown. As they say, “we seek to see with one eye open and one eye closed, sight turned simultaneously out towards the world and inward to the depths of the human experience.” These encounters are presented in the form of artefacts such as travelogues, diaries, objects, and correspondence.

Ultimately, their work investigates the complex narratives we create to make sense of our own existence, raising questions about the nature of reality and how we construct meaning in regards to our experiences.

Their work has been exhibited and screened internationally at galleries and film festivals including Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Kettle’s Yard, Whitechapel Gallery, BFI, Fabrica Gallery, Close-up Cinema, Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, Doclisboa, Microcinema Artist Moving Image, Museu de Arte Moderna Rio de Janeiro, Black Box Farnham, Film Mutations Zagreb.

In 2019 they launched Moving Image Artists (MIA), an organisation dedicated to supporting and cultivating contemporary moving image art and experimental film. This includes an online magazine, screenings and the Moving Image Salon, a monthly gathering for artists to meet, share and discuss their work. The Moving Image Salon takes place at Film and Video Umbrella, London.

Several of their films are distributed online by Tao Films and Kinoscope.

Films by Daniel & Clara are also included in the BFI National Archive.

Exhibitions and Screenings

2020   Daniel & Clara “On The Island…”, Missing Observer Studies #5, Huner Francis (Online)
2020   Caminhos do Cinema Português, Coimbra, Portugal
2020   Slow Film Festival, Mayfield, UK
2020   Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
2020   Festival Ecrã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Online)
2020   Domestic, Word of Warning, hÅb, UK (Online)
2020   London Experimental, UK (Online)
2020   Besides The Screen Conference, ISMAI, Porto, Portugal (Online)
2020   MeleM, Julijan Djupon, Niš, Serbia
2020   Seek The Sun Film Festival, France (Online)
2020   Scarborough Museum, UK (Online)
2020   Screening Room, Istanbul Int’ Experimental Film Festival, Turkey (Online)
2020   6×6 project (Online)
2020   Mark Devereux Projects, UK (Online)
2020   The Function Suite, UK (Online)
2020   Inside The Outside, UK (Online)
2020   CODEC Festival Int’ de Cine Experimental y Vídeo, Mexico (Online)
2020   Wells Projects, UK (Online)
2020   Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2020   Visionary Landscapes, Metal Southend, UK

2019   Experimenta Mixtape #7, BFI, London, UK
2019   Kinoskop, Belgrade, Serbia
2019   CODEC Festival Internacional de Cine Experimental y Vídeo, Mexico
2019   Cámara Lúcida – Encuentros Cinematográficos, Cuenca, Ecuador
2019   Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival, Turkey
2019   Hosek Contemporary, Mala Voadora, Porto, Portugal
2019   Microcinema Artist’s Moving Image, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK
2019   Slow Film Festival, Mayfield, UK
2019   Live Cultures, Close-up Cinema, London, UK
2019   11tHour Festival, King’s Lynn, UK
2019   Mostra de Cinema Português, Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal
2019   Kino Klub Split, Croatia
2019   Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2019   Eureka Festival Universitario de Cine, Bogotá, Colombia
2019   Coastal Currents, The Printworks, Hastings, UK
2019   Last Thursday Film Club, The Printworks, Hastings, UK
2019   Exploding Appendix Avant-Garde Research Group, Brighton, UK
2019   Festival ECRÃ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2019   The Bomb Factory, London, UK
2019   Birkbeck Cinema, London, UK
2019   Kino London, Candid Arts, London, UK
2019   The Hazel Eye Film Festival, USA
2019   Indielisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
2019   Open Projections: Coventry Cathedral, UK
2019   Experimenta Mixtape #2, BFI, London, UK

2018   CRASH Festival, Goiânia, Brazil
2018   Fabrica Gallery, Brighton, UK
2018   Exploding Appendix, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
2018   Doclisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
2018   Gardunha Fest, Fundão, Portugal
2018   Experimental Film Society, Filmwerkplaats, WORM Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2018   Gorst Underground Film Festival, Gorst, WA, USA
2018   DOBRA – Festival Int’l de Cinema Experimental, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2018   Bideodromo: International Experimental Film Festival, Bilbao, Spain
2018   Pugnant Film Series, Athens, Greece
2018   Exploding Appendix Avant-Garde Research Group, Brighton, UK
2018   CineAutopsia – Festival de Cine Experimental de Bogotá, Colombia
2018   Suspaustas Laikas Film Festival, Nida, Lithuania
2018   Station to Station, Tallinn, Estonia
2018   Risco Cinema, Cinemateca do Museu Arte Moderna Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2018   South Texas Underground Film Festival, Corpus Christi, TX, USA

2017   Station to Station, Sofia, Bulgaria
2017   PA!, Rosa Imunda, Porto, Portugal
2017   Station to Station, Warsaw, Poland
2017   Portland Underground Film Festival, Portland, OR, USA
2017   SeventySeven, Bristol, UK
2017   Black Box, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK
2017   Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
2017   Moon Moths, MacArts Centre, Galashiels, UK
2017   Forest Happenings, Edinburgh, UK

2016   Casa das Artes, Porto, Portugal
2016   Cinema Passos Manuel, Porto, Portugal
2016   Microcinema Artist’s Moving Image, Cambridge Film Festival, UK
2016   UFilm, Bucharest, Romania
2016   South Texas Underground Film Festival, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
2016   San Diego Underground Film Festival, USA
2016   The Magick Cinema, Birmingham, UK
2016   Experimental Film Society, Filmbase, Dublin, Ireland
2016   Andrómeda + Shortcutz Porto, Maus Hábitos, Porto, Portugal
2016   EmContraste, ESE Porto, Portugal
2016   Raw Territories Gatherings – Music and Film Festival, Porto, Portugal
2016   Palácio das Artes, Porto, Portugal
2016   SeventySeven, Bristol, UK

2015   Microcinema Artist’s Moving Image, Cambridge Film Festival, UK
2015   Cultivate Film Club, Manchester, UK

2014   Circuito Nomadica, Benevento, Italy
2014   Scalarama 2014, SeventySeven, Bristol, UK
2014   Wrong Directions Cinetent at Nozstock Festival, Herefordshire, UK
2014   Portugal Underground Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal
2014   Vagrant Film Festival, Belarus
2014   Circuito Nomadica, Bologna, Italy
2014   Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, Hawick, Scotland, UK
2014   Silvestre Concertos & Film Screening, Porto, Portugal

2013   STUFF Second Monday Screenings, Corpus Christi, USA
2013   Film Mutations, Festival of Invisible Cinema, Zagreb, Croatia
2013   PollyGrind Underground Film Festival, Las Vegas, NV, USA
2013   South Texas Underground Film Festival, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
2013   Portobello Film Festival, London, UK
2013   Portugal Underground Film Festival, New York, USA
2013   International Festival of Cinema Libre, Hamburg, Germany
2013   Cinema Culture, Chicago, USA

2012   Experijam, Cowley Club, Brighton, UK
2012   London Underground Film Festival, UK
2012   Brighton Cine-city Film Festival, UK
2012   Microcinema Artist’s Moving Image, Cambridge Film Festival, UK

Residencies

2020   Metal Southend, UK
2018   Exploding Appendix, Brighton, UK

Artist Talks & Lectures

2020   Daniel & Clara in conversation with Scott Barley, Ten Years Celebrations (Online)
2020   Home Cooking (Online)
2020   Future Network Shorts, Metal Culture, UK (Online)
2019   Exploding Appendix Avant-Garde Research Group, Brighton, UK
2018   University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
2017   Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
2017   The Alchemical Landscape, CRASSH, Cambridge University, UK
2016   Microcinema Artist’s Moving Image, Heong Gallery, Cambridge, UK

Print Publications As Contributor

Books

• “The Earth Died Screaming”, in Sleep Has Her House, ed. Scott Barley (2020, forthcoming)
• “The Quest For The Cine-Rebis”, in Luminous Void: Experimental Film Society Documents, ed. Maximilian Le Cain and Rouzbeh Rashidi (Experimental Film Society, 2017)
• Microcinema New Artists Moving Image: Then and Now, ed. James Mackay, Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais (Cambridge Film Trust, 2017)
• “Interview with Bruce Bickford by Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais”, in Mr Bickford Discovers a New Land, ed. Tommi Brem (Topalian & Milani Verlag, 2017)

Periodicals

• Film Panic Magazine, Issue 7, ed. Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais, January 2019
• “21 Reflections on Creativity and Cinema in the 21st Century”, The Art(s) Of Slow Cinema Journal, December 2018
• Film Panic Magazine, Issue 6, The Making of Phantom Islands, ed. Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais, July 2018
• Film Panic Magazine, Issue 5, The New Visionary Cinema, ed. Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais, January 2018
• “Towards A New Art Cinema”, in Hambre Dossier: Aberrant Intervals, September 2017
• Film Panic Magazine, Issue 4, ed. Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais, May 2017
• Film Panic Magazine, Issue 3, ed. Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais, December 2016
• Film Panic Magazine, Issue 2, The Quest For The Cine-Rebis, ed. Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais, April 2016
• Film Panic Magazine, Issue 1, ed. Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais, June 2013
• “An Introduction To Curt McDowell”, in One+One Filmmakers Journal, Issue 10, February 2013