Partenaire de cette nouvelle édition de Woman Paper, nous partagerons avec vous chaque jour de cette semaine de Paris Photo, le choix d’une femme du monde de l’art composé d’une photographie présentée lors de la foire accompagnée d’un texte féministe. Aujourd’hui, voici le choix d’Olivia Anani, curatrice et auteure, travaillant également pour la Maison de vente Christie’s.
Le Texte
d’Audre Lorde (1934-1992), auteure et professeure américaine
THERE ARE MANY kinds of power, used and unused, acknowledged or otherwise. The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling. In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the op-pressed that can provide energy for change. For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives. We have been taught to suspect this resource, vilified, abused, and devalued within western society. On the one hand, the superficially erotic has been encouraged as a sign of female inferiority; on the other hand, women have been made to suffer and to feel both contemptible and suspect by virtue of its existence.
It is a short step from there to the false belief that only by the suppression of the erotic within our lives and consciousness can women be truly strong. But that strength is illusory, for it is fashioned within the context of male models of power. As women, we have come to distrust that power which rises from our deepest and nontational knowledge. We have been warned against it all our lives by the male world, which values this depth of feeling enough to keep women around in order to exercise it in the service of men, but which fears this same depth too much to examine the possibilities of it within themselves. So women are maintained at a distantli nferior position to be psychically milked, much the same way ants maintain colonies of aphids to provide a life-giving substance for their masters. But the erotic offers a well of replenishing and provocative force to the woman who does not fear its revelation, nor succumb to the belief that sensation is enough. The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women. It has been made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, the plasticized sensation. For this reason, we have often turned away from the exploration and consideration of the erotic as a source of power and information, confusing it with its opposite, the pornographic. But pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents the suppression of true feeling. Pornography emphasizes sensation without feeling. The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves. It is never easy to demand the most from ourselves, from our lives, from our work. To encourage excellence is to go beyond the encouraged mediocrity of our society is to encourage excellence. But giving in to the fear of feeling and working to capacity is a luxury only the unintentional can afford, and the unintentional are those who do not wish to guide their own destinies. Audre Lorde A self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,”
Woman Paper ?
woman paper est une publication sous forme d’un journal grand format consacrée aux femmes du monde de l’art par elles mêmes; destiné aux initiés et pour initier le plus grand nombre. Festival, foire, biennale, elle est réalisée en partenariat avec la direction de l’évènement qu’elle couvre, gratuite, elle est offerte dans les espaces VIP puis à l’ensemble visiteurs. Chaque édition reprend les artistes issues de la programmation d’une part et des découvertes plus underground d’autre part. Le contenu est parfois l’objet de rencontres entre artistes ou de conversations devant un public invité.
