VALENTINA

FRANCES SCOTT

_{ONLINE SCREENING: VALENTINA
6PM,  19 NOV — 23:00 til SUN 22 NOV}

_{FRANCES SCOTT AND BETH BRAMICH IN CONVERSATION - 19:30 ,  21 NOV}

Valentina (2020), 3 minutes 55 seconds 16mm transfer to digital, black and white, stereo.



To conclude Frances Scott’s research residency, TACO! are pleased to present an online screening of Frances’ short film, Valentina (2020), followed by an in conversation event with writer Beth Bramich.

Valentina is a prelude to Wendy, a speculative portrait of, and film fan-letter to, composer and musician Wendy Carlos - self-described as “The Original Synth”. In Valentina, an unedited 100ft reel of hand-processed 16mm film, shot in rehearsal, is used as a silent score for a reading. Performer and dancer Valentina Formenti recalls part of a transcribed interview with Carlos, later edited for publication in ‘Playboy’ in 1979. Whilst the magazine interview was seen as the first public announcement of Carlos’ gender transition, these absent passages, excluded from the final edit, include her connected interests in cartography, physics, mathematics, transformations, astronomy, and her practice in solar eclipse photography. Valentina's multiple voices are translated through Vocoder, and collaged with musician Tom Richards’ performance on Daphne Oram’s unrealised ‘Mini-Oramics’, to suggest a coming into being through sonic synthesis.

‘…imagining a world without gender, which is perhaps a world without genesis, but maybe also a world without end.’ (Donna Haraway, ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs’, Socialist Review, no.80, 1985)

Frances will be joined by Beth to discuss her research around Carlos’ work and collaborations, in particular her arrangements for film soundtracks and use of the Vocoder (Voice-Encoder). They will speak about exploring new readings of the histories of cinema through archival materials, and how emerging themes of synthesis and eclipse will appear in the final film.

Wendy will be shown in a solo exhibition at TACO! in Autumn 2021, accompanied by a new book work published with An Endless Supply. Valentina will also be screened at Transmediale, Berlin in January 2021, alongside a filmed performance of the score in-progress by musician, Tom Richards.





Beth Bramich is a writer based in London. Her writing has appeared in Art Monthly, Afterall and Frieze and she has co-curated programmes of film, performance and discussion for Flat Time House, Nottingham Contemporary and South London Gallery. She is an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, where she is also Project Coordinator of Afterall. www.bethbramich.com

Frances Scott is an artist working with moving image. Informed by a collaborative and research-led process, her work takes multiple forms, through exhibitions to installations, screenings, events, broadcasts and publications, including recent presentations at: 57th New York Film Festival (2019); Close Up Film Centre, London (2019); RTM.FM / TACO! (2019); Het Bos, Antwerp (2018); The Bower, London (2018); Tate St Ives (2018); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2017); and Focal Point Gallery, Southend (2016). Frances was recipient of the Stuart Croft Foundation Moving Image Award (2017) and her films are distributed by LUX. www.abyme.org.uk