VIVAS NOS QUEREMOS -ART EXHIBITION
Vivas Nos Queremos
We Want Ourselves Alive
ART EXHIBITION
September 18 - October 5, 2019
Le Havre, France
A feminist art exhibition in Le Havre !
The exhibition will take place from 18 September to 5 October 2019 in Le Havre. It will be presented at Le Tetris, a contemporary music scene managed by the Papa's production association. A 50m² space will allow to present about thirty posters made in Argentina by women of the feminist and artistic movement "Vivas nos queremos".
Feminist prints created for the event by French artists will also be presented to the public, before being shown in a group exhibition at the Escalera Caracol Gallery in Buenos Aires in March 2020. This international exchange is made possible through a partnership with the British feminist organization FiLiA. In addition, they will be exhibited during the FiLia Feminist Conference taking place in October 19-20 2019, in Bradford.
Two workshops to discover linocut, the technique used to make the posters of the "Vivas nos queremos" movement, will be held on September 21 and 22. The exhibition is part of the programme of the Journées du Matrimoine en Normandie (September 20, 21 and 22) organised by the H/F association, which campaigns for a better recognition of women in culture.
The exhibition aims to introduce the "Vivas nos queremos" movement to the French public, raise awareness of the daily male violence suffered by girls and women around the world, and create exchanges between feminist organizations on an international scale.
"Vivas nos queremos": engraving is a cry within everyone's reach
"Vivas nos queremos" is a feminist and artistic movement that began in Mexico in 2014 and then spread throughout Latin America. Particularly active in Argentina, the movement has launched several "campaña gráfica", graphic campaigns relayed by heterogeneous women's groups in which there are artists and activists. These collectives organize linocut and woodcut workshops for girls and women to produce posters that carry their feminist messages.
The posters, which are intended to be hung in the streets, denounce the male violence that women suffer : sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape and murder. In 2016, a femicide took place every 30 hours in Argentina. In 2017, every 18 hours. "Vivas nos queremos", a slogan found in each poster and which could be translated into English as "we want ourselves alive", is a rallying cry in response to the number of disappearances and femicides in Latin America, which only associations list.
To fight this silent gynocide and invest the image field dominated by the mass media, posters have proven to be valuable tools. However, for the collectives of "Vivas nos queremos", a poster is less important than the creative process that gave birth to it. The workshops allow women to meet each other, share their experiences, learn about engraving and make images of themselves or several of them. They have the opportunity to define themselves, to transform the experience of patriarchal violence into strength, into an explosion of life and joy in being and creating together. Many posters contain messages of sorority.
Meetings in the streets, in demonstrations and on social networks have led to the development of graphic campaigns that seem to resonate with many women. The movement began in June 2014 in Mexico thanks to the call of the feminist group "Mujeres Grabando Resistancias (MUGRE)". The posters first covered the walls of Mexico City before appearing in the provinces. In August 2015, the movement was extended to Argentina. In Buenos Aires, some women were gluing Mexican posters while others were already gluing new images from workshops held in the city's neighbourhood centres. Posters were also seen in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru.
Understand the "campaña gráfica" in a few words !
Engravings for:
Denouncing male violence
Demanding justice for murdered women
Transforming fear and anger into creative energies
Freeing oneself from patriarchal representations
Discovering sorority
Posters from Argentina
Posters of the "Vivas nos queremos" movement have already been presented at an exhibition in England in October 2018. The exhibition, organized in Manchester by the feminist group FiLiA, featured posters created in Argentina and brought back from Buenos Aires by exhibition curator Marta Nunez.
The posters to be presented at the Tetris come from a recent trip made by Marta Nunez in April 2019. This set could be completed by posters printed in France thanks to the group "Vivas nos queremos Argentina" which digitizes its engravings and authorizes their free distribution and reproduction.
Engraving workshops for women and girls
The exhibition will be accompanied by two linocut workshops. Through these workshops organised on September 21 and 22 at the Tetris, participants will be able to discover the technique of engraving - from the first sketches to elaborate the project, to the printing of a poster - but also to exchange between women and experience sorority.
Based on the slogans of the exhibition posters, such as "one day I will walk without fear", "don't talk about love where there is violence" or "we are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn", each participant will be invited to create an image that expresses her refusal of men violence or her love for women.
Course of the workshops:
12am - 2pm : commented visit of the exhibition by Léa Colin, followed by a moment of exchange around a picnic
2pm - 6pm: engraving workshop led by Alexandra Lafitte (Studio Courte Echelle)
Search for funds
The collaboration with Le Tetris allowed the exhibition project "Vivas nos queremos" to come into being : the structure takes care of the costs related to the preparation and communication of the event. However, the use of other fundings are necessary in order to enable the exhibition to reach a wide audience and to meet its public.
The printing of additional posters from Argentina
In order to show the diversity of messages and styles used in the hundreds of engravings made by the movement, it would be interesting to complete the collection of posters directly imported from Argentina (12 posters) with posters printed in France using the digital files of the engravings made available by the group "Vivas nos queremos Argentina".
Contact has also been taken with the Mexican group "Mujeres Grabando Resistencias (MUGRE)" to request permission and files to print the very first posters produced in Mexico.
A sum of 200 euros would be necessary, according to the first estimates requested.
The publication of a booklet in French dedicated to the movement
The group "Vivas nos queremos Argentina" published a book in 2017 with the support of three Argentine publishers. This publication in Spanish, which brings together various texts and engravings, allows the group to finance itself. The English translation of this book is in progress. But no book in French has yet been published. The exhibition to be held in Le Havre offers this opportunity : the publication of a booklet in French, with excerpts from the texts of Argentine and Mexican groups, new articles on the movement and reproductions of the exhibition's most significant engravings, would be a first.
The booklet, 14 cm high by 12 cm wide, will consist of 20 pages printed in black and white on brightly coloured paper (or a selection of several colours). The cost for printing 150 copies is estimated at 200 euros. Each copy will be sold in the shop at a price of 3 euros. The revenues generated will be donated to the group "Vivas nos queremos Argentina".
The creation cards and goodies
Reproductions of the engravings in postcard format as well as badges could be sold at the Tetris reception desk, which has display cases for this purpose. The technique of serigraphy makes it possible to print good quality reproductions, appreciated by the visitors. The money generated from the sale of these goodies will be donated to the group "Vivas nos queremos Argentina".
The realization of goodies is estimated at 150 euros.
Exhibition curator
Léa Colin
I have a master's degree in art history and archaeology and I am an art registrar. I worked at the Museum of Fine Arts in Rouen and at the Museum of Art, History and Archeology in Evreux. I am also a feminist and co-founder of Osez le féminisme ! 76 (Normandy). This exhibition allows me to cross my two favourite fields, art and feminism.
Partnership
H/F Normandy
The purpose of the H/F Normandy association is to identify inequalities between men and women in the art and culture sectors and to mobilize against the discrimination observed in order to promote real equality and parity. http://hf-normandie.fr
Contact
Tél. : +33 (0)6 08 55 54 80