Mémoires Vives

From festival to festival: stories that matter

2000 - 2009
Since the beginning of the project, 30 years ago, the Voix des Femmes Festival has explored the connections between the arts, cultures and politics. In 2000, during the 5th edition, the National Network of Solidarity for Mothers, Spouses, Sisters, Daughters and Relatives of Kidnapped and Disappeared Persons was founded. For several years, women from Lebanon, Morocco, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Western Sahara and Kurdish, Turkish, Yugoslav, Rwandan, Senegalese and Belgian women met. They were joined by women from Chechnya, Algeria and Casamance. Iranian, Uighur, Afghan, Palestinian and Burkinabé women. What they have in common is that they stood up and resisted in the face of individual tragedy: the disappearance of loved ones. They organised to make the voices heard of those who demand Justice and Truth within contexts in which disappearances, violence and torture are tools to keep populations that stand up to authoritarian, violent and unjust regimes and political systems in line.
At this time, our stages welcome many artists who also carry, through their songs and music in particular, the stories of this violence, exile and silencing. Close ties were forged between the participants, intimate and artistic exchanges that the audience was able to witness first-hand.

2021

Today, Voix de Femmes invites four artists close to the project to become artists-in-residence in order to make this heritage their own during the festival: Maïa Chauvier, Lisette Lombé, Lara Persain, and Catherine Wilkin. Maïa Chauvier, Lisette Lombé, Lara Persain and Catherine Wilkin will take the stories of the time and put into words, rhythms and form the effects that these archives have on them and the questions they raise. What they produce in terms of desires and power: to say, to act, to take care. 

On 28 October at the Manège Fonck, they will share the results of this process, accompanied by their invited partners: artists, women in struggles, and individual and collective voices who have participated in the network or shared on this topic. Following this working stage, an intimate meeting will take place, which will be dedicated to the challenges and questions that arise around the topic of disappearance. It will be about the past, but above all it will be about the future, about what remains to be created for the next generation - and about the importance of protecting certain voices, sometimes understated but also particularly vulnerable. In order to make this discussion as safe a space as possible, we decided to keep this space closed to the public for this first exchange. 

And after this event? Work in progress.

Are you interested in the subject, and would you like to get in contact with the artists and the organisers? You can write to catherine@voixdefemmes.org. 

An afternoon to reflect on women-only spaces based on the experiences of lesbian spaces: real or fantasy, historical or contemporary practices. We will look for paths to desirable futures, where everyone has a place.

With the support of Wallonia.