Until March 28, the Paris Court of Appeal (in the Sainte Chapelle gallery) wants to raise awareness on the subject of violence against women through a poignant exhibition.
On the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day and national tribute to Gisèle Halimi, the Paris Court of Appeal is exhibiting from today, March 8, the work of Laetitia Lesaffre, visual artist and photographer , For raise awareness of the general public on the subject of violence against women. A symbolic place where justice and the resilience of the victims are mixed. Kintsugi, reflections of women To already exposed in certain courts like those of Versailles, Pontoise and Evry.
These women photographed by Laetitia Lesaffre are directors, students, lawyers, novelists, actresses, journalists, presidents of associations and they have all suffered violence: rape, incest, harassment, excision, domestic violence. All of them have wounds that they try to mend over time. This photographic series expresses the reconstruction, strength, courage and resilience of these women victims of sexual violence.
The art of Kintsugi: dressing wounds
The artist photographed his subjects in the reflection of lacquered paintings. These photos were printed on Japanese paper or ceramics, then torn or broken to reassemble and repair them with the Kintsugi technique. A process that consists of covering the breaks of a work of art with lacquer and highlighting them with real gold powder.
Kintsugi, an ancestral art dating from the 15th century, comes from the Japanese Kin (gold) and Tsugi (join) and therefore literally means: gold join. The broken object is then honored by this new life and paradoxically becomes more beautiful and resistant. A beautiful metaphor for these women honored in the exhibition: “This process of symbolic repair thinks and heals the wounds. By emphasizing their lines of faults by the Kintsugi, I sublimate their lines of force. In sorority“says Laetitia Lesaffre.
The great creativity of Laetitia Lesaffre, her photographs in a court, a highly symbolic place, help these women to rebuild themselves, to regain their self-confidence. A real therapy, even if some denounce a justice that is still too deaf and slow in the face of victims of sexual violence.
Exhibition “Kintsugi, reflections of women” by Laetitia Lesaffre until March 28 in the Sainte Chapelle gallery of the Paris Court of Appeal.