Read Cards Like a Surrealist: A Tarot Exploration With Laetitia Barbier

Read Cards Like a Surrealist: A Practical and Creative Tarot Exploration With Laetitia Barbier

In the PRS Library!

Welcome to the Surrealist Tarot Parlor! A new Tarot class with Laetitia Barbier exploring the surrealist gaze, image-making and legacy applied to contemporary Tarot practice. The surrealist Tarot parlor is a cozy, experimental laboratory, a place of poetic foreplay in which we’ll be able to informally indulge in magical iconographical explorations, through games and artful activities.

From its early beginning in the 1920s, the Surrealist movement championed artistic exploration through methods such as free association, automatic writing and exquisite corpses - collective drawing or texts made without knowing the others’ contribution. Inspired by Psychoanalysis, the surrealists used playfulness, group exercises and the quest for liminal states to subvert their own predictability and free themselves from the constraints of the rational mind. Surprise, accident, and reveries brought to the surface the inarticulate visions of the subconscious and unlocked the doors of creation.

In the same way, Tarot as an intuitive and introspective practice forces us to reconcile with our own imagination, to contemplate what’s hidden within us, and use it as materia prima to reinvent our own narrative. In this class, we’ll behave like Surrealism resurrectionists, unearthing the avant-garde group’s creative methodology, unapologetically applying it to Tarot tradition and seeing what chance encounters we reveal. After engaging in tarot practice, students will be invited to create their own tarot card using collage and surrealist creative techniques.

Presenter Bio:

French-born Laetitia Barbier is an independent scholar, as well as a professional tarot reader and teacher. She earned a Bachelor's Degree in Art History from La Sorbonne University Paris in 2009. Laetitia has worked with Morbid Anatomy from 2012 to 2024 as a programming director, head librarian, and occasional curator. Her book Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive was published in 2021 with a foreword by Rachel Pollack. She is the author of the Tiger Tarot Guide Book, a unique Tarot deck by symbolist artist Lori Field. As a writer and scholar, she has the privilege of collaborating with the iconic French maître-cartier Grimaud, notably on the exquisite re-release of their 1930s Tarot de Marseille and Belline Oracle.

Laetitia has lectured, taught and read cards for various cultural institutions, such as Greenwood Cemetery, Artyard, Fotografiska NY, the College of Psychic Studies in London or the New York Public Library. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Ticket price: $55 (in person event only)

Please email ZXZlbnRzIHwgcHJzICEgb3Jn or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.

ACCESSIBILITY

PRS wants all guests to be able to enjoy our events safely and comfortably. If you require any accessibility accommodation, please reach out to ZXZlbnRzIHwgcHJzICEgb3Jn before showtime and we will be happy to assist you.

REFUND POLICIES

All sales are final. There are no refunds or exchanges for PRS events, except in the event of a medical emergency, including but not limited to a positive COVID-19 test.

In the event that PRS is forced to cancel an event entirely, tickets will be refunded or vouchers offered for a rescheduled event.

PARKING

Limited parking is available onsite at PRS in both the front lot (entry from Los Feliz Blvd. when heading east) and back lot (entry from first alley way, off Griffith Park Blvd. from intersection with Los Feliz Blvd.), as well as street parking on Griffith Park Blvd. and (after 7 PM) on Los Feliz Blvd. We encourage attendees to consider carpooling, walking or biking to events if possible, and please be considerate of our Los Feliz neighbors when parking, many thanks.

PRS EVENT POLICIES

• We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.
• Events are subject to change without notice, including guest speakers and/or performers.
• We encourage you to arrive at least 30 min. before the scheduled event start time to find parking, enjoy the Bookstore and take your seats.
• Please turn off all mobile devices before the show. Talking and texting are not allowed during the events.
• No filming, audio recording or mobile phone recording of events, screenings, concerts or other programs by audience members is allowed without permission.
• There is no smoking permitted on PRS grounds.
• We strongly encourage guests to wear masks to PRS events to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
• PRS allows Service Animals into the facility under ADA and state guidelines. For further details please visit www.ADA.gov. No animals permitted whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support, under ADA guidelines and CA Health Code.
• Please do not bring outside food or drink into PRS events.
• Weapons are strictly prohibited at PRS events.

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