Françoise Janicot: "Encoconnage" (1972). image copyright Françoise Janicot,
courtesy le peuple qui manque, Paris

Françoise Janicot (France *1929)

Françoise Janicot was an abstract painter before she began taking photographs of her contemporaries in the 1960s. She photographed many people, including Julien Beck, Julien Blaine, William S. Burroughs, John Cage, Jacqueline Cahen, Françoise Dufrêne, John Giorno, Charlotte Moorman, Esther Ferrer, Christian Prigent and Jean-Jacques Lebel. She also worked as a performer in 1969 and 1970. Later, she made films and videos about performance artists and sound poets.

Inspired by the sound poems composed by her husband Bernard Heidsieck, in "Encoconnage" Françoise Janicot cocoons herself in thin rope then works herself free - a symbol of the confinement and liberation of women.