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 Festival Ecrã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (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, 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
Talks & Lectures
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
