Image: Falmouth Art Gallery
Falmouth Art Gallery will host an illustrated talk on 4 September exploring the work of Claude Cahun, the Surrealist photographer and writer whose practice challenged conventional ideas of politics and gender. The hour-long event, titled 'Exhibition Talk – Claude Cahun: Surrealist photographer, writer and resistance fighter', will be led by Marcus Williamson and is scheduled for 6pm to 7pm at the gallery in Falmouth.
The talk is being presented in the context of the gallery’s current exhibition 'Mirrors: Reflecting on Identity', which runs from 16 May to 26 September 2026. The exhibition brings together major loans and works by internationally significant artists, focusing on the question of identity through paintings, photographs and mixed-media works from the last century through to the present day. The talk is positioned as a companion to that exhibition rather than a separate show, with the programme framing Cahun’s work through the gallery’s broader exploration of how people see themselves and how they want to be seen.
According to the gallery’s event listing, Cahun lived with her lover and half-sister Marcel Moore in Nantes, Paris and Jersey, and the pair sought through words and images to challenge and defy traditional political and gender roles. The listing describes Cahun as someone whose work and life aligned with a Surrealist impulse to question identity and representation. The page also notes that she was born in 1894 and died in 1954.
The event material cites the Surrealist leader’s description of Cahun as “one of the most curious spirits of our time.” That quotation appears in the gallery’s announcement and situates the talk within the historical reception of Cahun’s work. The listing also includes the caption 'I am in training, don’t kiss me' for a 1927 photograph, indicating that the illustrated presentation will draw on her visual output as well as the biography attached to it.
Marcus Williamson is identified on the gallery page as an independent researcher, journalist, database publisher and art collector, with a particular passion for the women of Surrealism. No further content outline is given, but the title and description indicate that the talk will survey Cahun’s art and writing and consider how her work intersects with the identity questions at the heart of 'Mirrors: Reflecting on Identity'.
Falmouth Art Gallery’s announcement places the talk within a wider season of exhibitions and events, and the gallery notes free admission on its website. The venue is listed as Falmouth Art Gallery, Municipal Buildings, The Moor, Falmouth, TR11 2RT, with the talk taking place on Friday 4 September 2026 from 6pm to 7pm.
