Bio / CV

Daniel & Clara, two humans who exist as one artist on a journey of creativity and transformation. Since meeting in 2010 they have been deeply committed to an investigation into the nature of creativity and imagination, particularly seeking to understand how narrative and meaning are constructed. Their work circles around questions such as: what is art? what is cinema? and what is it to be a human being in these particular bodies at this particular moment in time?

Through both moving image for cinema and gallery, as well as performance work, Daniel & Clara are in a continuous process of transformation and exploration. Imagination and creativity are their highest valued tools, and in all their work one can see the evidence of their statement that “inside every human being is an entire universe that is vaster than anyone can know, creativity is a vessel we can use to explore it and our art is the treasure we bring back”.

Their moving image work draws equally on the histories of both painting and cinema, their films rest strongly on a process of visual experimentation; the transformation of the recorded image often through the use of obsolete video formats such as Hi8, VHS and Mini-DV gives their work its unique quality.

In their expanded cinema performances, the universe of their films bursts out into the gallery space, using multiple projection, live sound effects and performative actions. In their other performance work their investigations into imagination meet with an interest in human behaviour, exploring how our inner lives impact on how we act in the world, confronting the place where inner and outer reality meets.

Their 2D work includes photographic and print works, as well as letter pieces, auto replies and performance documentation. These works expand from their performance practice and life as art.

Their work has been exhibited and screened internationally at galleries and film festivals including British Film Institute, Fabrica Gallery, Doclisboa, Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, Microcinema Artist Moving Image, Cambridge Film Festival, Cinemateca do MAM Rio de Janeiro, Black Box Farnham, Film Mutations Zagreb, Brighton Cine-city, Palácio das Artes Porto, and Firstsite Gallery.

Alongside their work as artists they have also curated events in the UK and Portugal presenting programmes of artist cinema and experimental film.

They have written for a number of publications, including AN Magazine, The Art(s) of Slow Cinema Journal, Hambre Dossier: Aberrant Intervals, Mr Bickford Discovers a New Land (Topalian & Milani Verlag, Germany) Microcinema Artists Moving Image: Then And Now (Cambridge Film Trust, UK) and Luminous Void: EFS Documents (Experimental Film Society, Ireland). They are also the founders and contributing editors of Film Panic Magazine.

Throughout 2018 they were artists in residence at Exploding Appendix in Brighton, this included taking part in a year long interview, screenings and the production of new work.

Several of their films are distributed by The Underground Film Studio and are available on DVD & VOD.

Witches Walk and Witches Walk Monochrome are currently distributed online by Tao Films.

Exhibitions and Screenings (selected)

2019 Experimenta Mixtape, BFI, London, UK
2019 Indielisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

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 Exploding Appendix Avant-Garde Research Group, Brighton, UK
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

Print Publications As Contributor (selected)

Books

“The Earth Died Screaming”, in Sleep Has Her House, ed. Scott Barley (2019)
“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

“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

Interviews (selected)

Avant Kinema, “Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais On Collaboration”, by Sarahjane Swan & Roger Simian, June 2018
Tao Films, “Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais Interviewed by Tao Films”, by Nadin Mai, June 2018
Exploding Appendix, “An Interview in 12 Parts”, by Bradley Tuck, published monthly throughout 2018
The Underground Film Studio, “Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais / Risco Cinema”, by Gurcius Gewdner, March 2018
(Re)search my Trash, “The Kingdom Of Shadows Interview”, by Michael Haberfelner, December 2016
c7nema, “c7nema Entrevista Clara Pais”, by José Pedro Lopes, November 2016
Take One, “At play in The Kingdom Of Shadows”, by Karen Eng, November 2016
Bums On Seats + Take One, “The Kingdom Of Shadows Interview”, by Toby Miller, October 2016
London Filmmakers, “Directors’ Notes: Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais”, by Viviana Di Capua, September 2016
(Re)search my Trash, “In Search Of The Exile Interview”, by Michael Haberfelner, August 2016
EFS Publications, “EFS Interviews The Underground Film Studio”, by Rouzbeh Rashidi, August 2016
Andrómeda, “Cinema, Alchemy and Exile”, by Júlio Mendes Rodrigo, July 2016
(Re)search my Trash, “Black Sun & The Kingdom Of Shadows”, by Michael Haberfelner, October 2015
Take One Magazine, “Splendor Solis Interview”, by Faye Gentile, September 2015
(Re)search my Trash, “Savage Witches Interview”, by Michael Haberfelner, March 2015
Celluloid Oxygen, “Phantoms & Beasts”, by Tess Connellan, November 2014
Arranca-Corações, Rádio NFM, “Savage Witches”, by Júlio Mendes Rodrigo, December 2013
The Smoke Issue III, “Celebrating Creativity”, by Kit Harwood, October 2013
One+One Filmmakers Journal, “Wild and Free!”, by Bradley Tuck, December 2012
FilmInk, “Absorb your Obstacles!”, by Jack Sargeant, October 2012
Bums on Seats, Cambridge 105 Radio, “Savage Witches Interview”, by Toby Miller, September 2012
The Geekend, Radio Reverb, “Savage Witches Interview”, by Wayne Imms, September 2011

Reviews / Articles (Selected)

NGBoo Art, “Espectros da Terra Review”, by Nikola Gocić, December 2018
NGBoo Art, “Telekinetic Pleasures Review”, by Nikola Gocić, April 2018
Cultured Vultures, “A Survey of The Underground Film Studio”, by Patrick King, October 2017
“Dreaming In Exile: The Alchemical Cinema of Daniel Fawcett & Clara Pais” by Nikola Gocić, in Microcinema New Artists Moving Image Then And Now (Cambridge Film Trust, 2017)
Film International, “Savage Witches Review”, by David Finkelstein, July 2017
NGBoo Art, “The Kingdom Of Shadows Review”, by Nikola Gocić, May 2017
NGBoo Art, “In Search Of The Exile Review”, by Nikola Gocić, April 2017
The Spinning Image, “In Search Of The Exile Review”, by Graeme Clark, February 2017
366 Weird Movies, “The Kingdom Of Shadows Review”, by Giles Edwards, January 2017
Limitless Cinema, “The Kingdom Of Shadows Review”, by Jit Phokaew, December 2016
Film International, “The Kingdom of Shadows Review”, by David Finkelstein, December 2016
(Re)search my Trash, “The Kingdom of Shadows Review”, by Michael Haberfelner, December 2016
(Re)search my Trash, “In Search Of The Exile Review”, by Michael Haberfelner, August 2016
366 Weird Movies, “Splendor Solis Review”, by L. Rob Hubbard, November 2015
Pink8, “Don’t Fence Me In”, by Fabrizio Federico, October 2015
Limitless Cinema, “Splendor Solis Review”, by Jit Phokaew, September 2015
(Re)search my Trash, “Savage Witches Review”, by Michael Haberfelner, March 2015
Limitless Cinema, “Savage Witches Review”, by Jit Phokaew, June 2014
Weng’s Chop, Issue 5, “Savage Witches Review”, by Tony Strauss, March 2014
Celluloid Oxygen, “Savage Witches Review”, by Tess Connellan, July 2013
Bad Lit: Underground Film Journal, “Savage Witches Review”, by Mike Everleth, June 2013
366 Weird Movies, “Savage Witches Review”, by L. Rob Hubbard, May 2013
“Savage Witches Review”, by Strat Mastoris, April 2013
The Vern’s Video Vortex, “Savage Witches Review”, by Jason Hemming, April 2013
Take One, “Savage Witches Review”, by Jim Ross, September 2012