26/04/2025
15:00:-16:20
Chapter 2: WOMB WARRIORS
Celebrating and mourning the womb as a bearer of tears and fears. The womb as a site of receptivity, reflexivity, revolution, and resolution. Three short films sharing the pain and trauma of the female body within a patriarchal medical system. With a live Grunt performance by Diane Mahín.
𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁, 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗮𝘁 𝟯𝟭, 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗲𝗻
Marie Bottois - Le Passage du Col (2022, 14’)
Léna is a midwife, and I am her patient. While she replaces my IUD, I document our appointment.The camera becomes a mirror, while a relationship of care unfolds between midwife, patient, and film crew.
Carole Roussopoulos - Y'a qu'à pas baiser!, (1973, 17’)
Produced in the early 1970’s, while abortion is still illegal in France, this militant video documents the debate on this issue, from anti-abortion propaganda in the media to the first major pro-abortion and reproductive rights demonstration in Paris on November 20, 1971. Images show feminists performing an abortion using the Karman method. Y'a qu'à pas baiser!, back then a tool for the struggle and the transmission of a practice, is today an essential historical document.
Tabita Rezaire – Sugar Walls Teadom (2016,21’)
Sugar Walls Teardom reveals the contributions of Black womxn’s wombs to the advancement of modern medical science and technology. During slavery, Black womxn’s bodies were used and abused as commodities for laborious work in plantations, sexual slavery, reproductive exploitation and medical experiments. Anarcha, Betsey and Lucy, were among the captive guinea pigs of Dr. Marion Sims, the so-called ‘father of modern gynecology’, who tortured countless enslaved womxn in the name of science. Unacknowledged, Black womxn’s wombs have been central to the biomedical economy as the story of Henrietta Lacks – whose stolen cervix cells became the first immortal cells leading to medical breakthrough - reminds us. Biological warfare against Black womxn is still pervasive in today’s pharmaceutical industry. Sugar Walls Teardom celebrates womb technology through an account of coercive anatomic politics and pays homage to these wombs; their contributions have not been forgotten.
Diane Mahín – Grunt (2024,15’) Performance
In GRUNT, the audience meets a woman who communicates solely through growling. The growler navigates various moods, portraying what seems to be an urgent story to be told or an inimate conversation to be held. While she attempts to tell a joke, the audience is met with dark, trauma-laden growls, turning humor into a shadowy reflection. When she reaches out tenderly, all she can express is violence. What begins as an awkward encounter full of innocent misunderstandings gradually escalates into a desperate need for connection. As she fails to bridge the communication gap with the audience, her growls become more frantic, as she starts propelling them into space while hoping for some kind of response. The vocalizations transform from deliberate attempts to communicate into involuntary, visceral outbursts, culminating in a violent expulsion of sound. GRUNT explores the effects of trauma through the primal language of vocality and physicality. The hidden layers of trauma emerge through the growls, revealing a raw and unfiltered expression of inner turmoil. Inspired by the distorted vocals of Death Metal, Diane began growling a year ago, studying under professional Metal singers. She is drawn to growling for its immediate invocation of darkness and its cathartic potential for both the growler and the listener, finding a unique blend of humor and pathos in the juxtaposition of gestural intent and sonic expression.
Léna is a midwife, and I am her patient. While she replaces my IUD, I document our appointment.The camera becomes a mirror, while a relationship of care unfolds between midwife, patient, and film crew.
Carole Roussopoulos - Y'a qu'à pas baiser!, (1973, 17’)
Produced in the early 1970’s, while abortion is still illegal in France, this militant video documents the debate on this issue, from anti-abortion propaganda in the media to the first major pro-abortion and reproductive rights demonstration in Paris on November 20, 1971. Images show feminists performing an abortion using the Karman method. Y'a qu'à pas baiser!, back then a tool for the struggle and the transmission of a practice, is today an essential historical document.
Tabita Rezaire – Sugar Walls Teadom (2016,21’)
Sugar Walls Teardom reveals the contributions of Black womxn’s wombs to the advancement of modern medical science and technology. During slavery, Black womxn’s bodies were used and abused as commodities for laborious work in plantations, sexual slavery, reproductive exploitation and medical experiments. Anarcha, Betsey and Lucy, were among the captive guinea pigs of Dr. Marion Sims, the so-called ‘father of modern gynecology’, who tortured countless enslaved womxn in the name of science. Unacknowledged, Black womxn’s wombs have been central to the biomedical economy as the story of Henrietta Lacks – whose stolen cervix cells became the first immortal cells leading to medical breakthrough - reminds us. Biological warfare against Black womxn is still pervasive in today’s pharmaceutical industry. Sugar Walls Teardom celebrates womb technology through an account of coercive anatomic politics and pays homage to these wombs; their contributions have not been forgotten.
Diane Mahín – Grunt (2024,15’) Performance
In GRUNT, the audience meets a woman who communicates solely through growling. The growler navigates various moods, portraying what seems to be an urgent story to be told or an inimate conversation to be held. While she attempts to tell a joke, the audience is met with dark, trauma-laden growls, turning humor into a shadowy reflection. When she reaches out tenderly, all she can express is violence. What begins as an awkward encounter full of innocent misunderstandings gradually escalates into a desperate need for connection. As she fails to bridge the communication gap with the audience, her growls become more frantic, as she starts propelling them into space while hoping for some kind of response. The vocalizations transform from deliberate attempts to communicate into involuntary, visceral outbursts, culminating in a violent expulsion of sound. GRUNT explores the effects of trauma through the primal language of vocality and physicality. The hidden layers of trauma emerge through the growls, revealing a raw and unfiltered expression of inner turmoil. Inspired by the distorted vocals of Death Metal, Diane began growling a year ago, studying under professional Metal singers. She is drawn to growling for its immediate invocation of darkness and its cathartic potential for both the growler and the listener, finding a unique blend of humor and pathos in the juxtaposition of gestural intent and sonic expression.