Dans le cadre de l’exposition inter-écoles à l’Alliance Française de Bologne, avec nos partenaires l’Accademia di Belle Arti (Bologne), la HAW(Hambourg), La Massana (Barcelone), Kyoto City University of Arts (Kyoto) et Latvijas Masklas akademia (Riga), les étudiant·es de 3e année design graphique ont réalisé une image durant un workshop de 5j. Le thème de cette édition porte sur les portraits de femmes méconnues ou invisibilisées de l’histoire. Retour en images sur le travail mené à cette occasion.
Drawing women out of the shadows
« In prehistoric times, women were hunters. In the Middle Ages they were cathedral builders. They were spies during the Hundred Years’ War, and in the 19th century they were journalists… In each era, they acted, directed, created and governed, but many of them do not appear in history books. »
The Great Forgotten : Why history has erased women (Les grandes oubliées : Pourquoi l’Histoire a effacé les femmes), Titiou Lecoq, éditions Iconoclaste
If history–or rather those who made it– has only retained a few women as examples, we have a lot of work to do. Too many have been forgotten, and when we look carefully, too many names remain without a face. In order to appear in history books and in the collective memory, one needs an image. One has to make an image as well, and that is the political challenge of the art of portraiture. We will focus on lesser known women from history, and our illustrations will allow us to bring them to the forefront. This gallery of portraits will provoke new encounters with the public.
This can be done through revisited (or if necessary, invented) portraits, through allegory, through historical setting, through documentary illustration, through narration, and, more generally, through the tools of fiction… anything goes, as long as the illustrations present the actions and commitments of these women. You will complete your portrait with a short legend describing the subject and her historical context.
For example, rather than Mata Hari, we will prefer her contemporary, Marthe Richard (1889-1982), rather than Gertrude Stein, we are interested in her companion Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967)….