Itinéraires Fantômes oracle deck launch at Philosophical Research Society
Philosophical Research Society auditorium and courtyard
3910 Los Feliz Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Saturday, August 24, 2024
7–10pm
$10
The Itinéraires Fantômes launch event at the Philosophical Research Society will include a conversation between artist and publisher Alexandra Grant and curator Ana Iwataki, card presentations by Los Angeles-based participating artists, oracle deck readings by Didi Beck, and signature Phantom Itineraries drinks. Itinéraires Fantômes oracle decks will be available for sale at the launch, with a discounted price from the cost of tickets.
Itinéraires Fantômes is an oracle deck created by Alexandra Grant with Hélène Cixous in celebration of Hélène’s work. It is published by X Artists’ Books as part of X Topics. The Itinéraires Fantômes oracle deck was released earlier this summer at the CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name on view until January 19, 2025, curated by Marion Vasseur Raluy and Ana Iwataki.
The Itinéraires Fantômes deck consists of 72 cards in six categories: animots, creatures, and entities that include Those from Below, Those from Above, Those Who Fly/Steal, who travel via Portals, manipulate Messages and Symbols, and have Superpowers. The cards are accompanied by a booklet in English and French.
The images on the Itinéraires Fantômes cards come from family, friends, and artists who have been inspired by and inspired Hélène’s writing and were designed by Unyimeabasi Udoh. Artists include: Adel Abdessemed, Pierre Alechinsky, Sara Barker, Gabrielle Berger, Louise Bourgeois, Leonardo Bravo, Maria Bussmann, Sarah Cain, Lewis Carroll, Bertrand Charneau, Maria Chevska, Michael Kennedy Costa, Laura Darbutaitė, Tacita Dean, Edgar Fabián Frías, Jeffrey Gibson, Francisco Goya, Alexandra Grant, Mathew Hale, Simon Hantaï, Johanna Hedva, Roni Horn, Victor Hugo, Hanna Hur, Franz Kafka, YeRin Kim, Lynn Marie Kirby, Jean-Jacques Lemêtre, Colin Lemoine, Laure Prouvost, Elsa Prudent, Addy Rabinovitch, Keanu Reeves, Cindy Rehm, Saranya Siegel-Berger, Shinique Smith, Nancy Spero, Luc Tuymans, Unyimeabasi Udoh, Roger Viollet, and Anna Winger.
Hélène Cixous is a multi-hyphenate French writer, philosopher and playwright born in Oran, Algeria whose writing, since 1969’s Dedans (Inside), has pushed against literary genres. As an academic, Cixous co-founded Paris University VIII in 1969 and founded the first Women’s Studies program in Europe. She has collaborated extensively with visual artists as well as contemplated their work in her writing. Cixous gave an early manuscript of her 2022 work Mdeilmm to Grant as the basis or inspiration for the Itinéraires Fantômes deck and exhibition.
Alexandra Grant is a Los Angeles– and Berlin–based visual artist whose work explores issues around communication across languages, literary traditions, and cultures. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries globally and she is represented by Miles McEnery Gallery in New York and carlier | gebauer in Berlin and Madrid. Grant’s first collaboration with Hélène Cixous, in 2013 was a two-city exhibition and participatory drawing project called Forêt Intérieure/Interior Forest at Mains d’Oeuvres in Saint Ouen, France and 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA.
Ana Iwataki is a cultural historian, writer, and curator from and based in Los Angeles. She is also a PhD candidate in Comparative Media and Culture at the University of Southern California.