Confronting the Catacomb Saints: Death & the Camera in Palermo

Iain Sinclair introduced by Michael Molnar - a 30th anniversary event

Join us for the latest in a special series of talks and lectures marking the Museum's 30th Anniversary, which take place throughout 2016.

This evening Iain Sinclair considers the ethics, risks and illuminations in photographing the dead, with special reference to the preserved and mummified husks in the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo. Another strand of the talk will track the poet Raymond Roussel to the point of suicide in the Grand Hotel. Sinclair will pay his respects to the photographic projects of other Palermo visitors, including Mimi Mollica, Brian Catling and Tony Grisoni, and most recently the artist and printmaker Ian Wilkinson. Sinclair’s own recent visit, followed exposure to Wilkinson's prints.

Iain Sinclair has lived in (and written about) Hackney, East London, since 1969. His novels include Downriver (Winner of the James Tait Black Prize & the Encore Prize for the Year’s Best Second Novel), Radon Daughters, Landor’s Tower and Dining on Stones (which was shortlisted for the Ondaatje prize). Non-fiction books, exploring the myth and matter of London, include Lights Out for the Territory, London Orbital and Edge of the Orison. In the ‘90s, Sinclair wrote and presented a number of films for BBC2’s Late Show and has, subsequently, co-directed with Chris Petit four documentaries for Channel 4; one of which, Asylum, won the short film prize at the Montreal Festival. He edited London, City of Disappearances, which was published in October 2006. In recent times, he has published Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire (2009), Ghostmilk (2011) and ‘American Smoke’ (2013). Sinclair’s account of a one-day walk around the orbital railway – London Overground - was published in June 2015.

Michael Molnar is an ex-director of the Freud Museum. His latest publication was a volume of essays on Freud's photo collection: Looking through Freud's Photos (Karnac, 2015).