On the occasion of the first edition of the Euro-Africa biennial which is being held from October 9 to 15 in Montpellier, four African and Afro-descendant artists are exhibiting their militant works in favor of women’s rights at the Halle Tropisme.
They are four women brought together in the same exhibition and the same fight. Four women with different creative techniques, four sensibilities who question through their works the place of women in Africa and the notion of identity. Although two of them currently live in Morocco, that does not prevent them from shaking up social habits and representations.
This is the case of Ghizlane Ouazzani who works natural textiles with hot water and beldi soap using a very old technique. One of his works entitled Guerrilla textures represents Aïcha Kandicha, a Moroccan mystical figure. A tribute to this demonic character who embodies, she says, all wounded women, whose bodies have been hidden and demonized. In her works she wants to liberate female bodies.
Lifting a taboo on sex
“Desecrating women’s bodies, explains the Moroccan artist, it is that finally the body of women is no longer a territory to conquer but a territory to seduce, a territory to respect, a natural territory. She proudly adds: I want women to be able to walk around topless tomorrow.”
Khadija Tnana goes even further with her deliberately impertinent paintings: positions from the Kamasutra drawn on the hands of Fatima. A work considered shocking in his country, Morocco. And this is precisely the objective of the 80-year-old artist. “It’s important to shock, she justifies. If in the history of feminism people go to extreme cries, it is these cries that society listens to.”
With her works, she intends to lift a taboo on sex to calm male-female relationships. “With education, we can achieve a more liberal society, more understanding between human beings”continues the one which has sometimes been censored.
Alongside the two Moroccan artists, Fatoumata Diabaté and Hélène Jayet, both based in Montpellier, exhibit their photographic work. The exhibition 4 women presented at the Halle Tropisme in Montpellier takes place as part of the Euro-Africa biennial, an international meeting whose first edition is held from October 9 to 15, 2023. This multi-faceted event which in addition to a section devoted to development and to innovation, gives pride of place to culture.