WOMEN’S EXHIBITION FESTIVAL

The Festival LES FEMMES S'EXPOSENT aims to highlight and reward the work of women photographers and, thus, to support new and old generations. 

The exhibitions are held in the public space: their visibility by all and their gratuitousness are the basic principles of the organization of the event.

The WOMEN EXHIBIT FESTIVAL is:

- 14 outdoor exhibitions 2 of which were awarded through scholarships, including one in residence in Houlgate

- 2 prices to reward work on various themes

- 3 educational projects, in the form of photo exhibitions or audio tracks.

The opening weekend, attended by photographers, is scheduled from June 9 to 11, 2023, with guided tours, screenings and debates.

Forough Alaei

This year, the Festival is devoting an exhibition to Iranian photojournalist Forough Alaei.
Her country sees a generation of young women politically engaged, who are beginning to structure themselves in movement. Through her lens, the photographer captured the heroines who, at the risk of their lives, are defeating the perpetual domination of men imposed by the ultra-conservative government in Iran, now in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis."
Beatrice Tupin Director of the Festival

Iranian photojournalist Forough Alaei began photography in 2015. She explores social issues and addresses inequalities, particularly those that target women. Her work on women football fans won first place in three prestigious competitions in 2019: World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International (POYi) and Istanbul Photo Awards. That same year, she joined Agency VII’s mentorship program for two years. In 2020, she won the Getty Images editorial scholarship. She has collaborated with several international media including «New Yorker», «Paris Match», «Time», «The Guardian», «Die Zeit», «Foreign Policy»...

Exhibition at the Maison du Patronage

©Forough Alaei

Other exhibitions:

- Isabelle Chapuis, The portrait staged Retrospective, Rue Féral

- Roxane Daumas, Past composed, Exchange, Residence in Houlgate, Tourist office and casino

- Sanne Derks, Manifesto del Agua (Water Manifest) , Beach

- Noriko Hayashi, Aging Japan (Japan in the face of ageing), Place de l'église Saint-Aubin

- Bénédicte Kurzen, The Madjinis in Mayotte - Inhabited bodies, Square Debussy

- JeeYoung Lee 이지영, Stage of Mind, Axbridge Street

- Ana Mendes, Those you don’t see, Beach

- Édith Roux, Twin Oaks, The United States Today Women’s Exhibition Festival Scholarship. Beach

- Natalya Saprunova, Saamis, we lived in the tundra, Beach

- Margaux Senlis, A honey with a bitter taste, Rue Armengaud

- Isabelle Serro, Destination fnale: Ghana, Place de l'église Saint-Aubin

- Adrienne Surprenant, The twilight of Africa’s glaciers, Beach

The 3 educational projects

Moods

Photo workshop with the young people of the place of life of the CPCV, supervised by Alexandra Serrano. With the support of the Drac Normandie and the Orange Foundation.

Marcel Proust was 16 years old when he answered, probably in Le Havre on September 4, 1887, to the questionnaire that had become so famous, entitled «Confessions». He will try it several times, modifying his answers, but always with spirit, and will make the habit of submitting it to his friends, in order to better know, through their answers, their personalities.

Nearly a century and a half later, other teenagers, also living in Normandy, the region so dear to Proust, lent themselves in turn to the «Confessions» and revealed their tastes and aspirations. Photographer Alexandra Serrano accompanied the young people of the CPCV’s place of life in a work around identity, taking as a starting point their answers, while reflecting on the deep meaning and symbolism of the image.

These seven young people worked on photography slowly and thoughtfully, against the current values of immediacy and immediacy created by the evolution of media technologies and social networks where everything is representation. They have been led to wonder about the way they look at themselves, and what they want to present to others.

By stimulating their imagination, by introducing them to narration and self-performance, together they have built productions, each in turn assuming the role of model and photographer, giving their bodies a place in the real and imaginary realms. Based on memories, personal objects, feelings, passions or desires, they told each other in a photographic way and tried to express, through an interplay of images, their states of mind and their states of being.

Projet-pedagogique-CPCV-Marcel-Proust©Béatrice Tupin/LFSE

Image education

Project coordinated by Anne Degroux, with the support of Drac Normandie.

From the first year, the Festival conducted an educational project with the primary school of Houlgate. And for three years, the Festival has wanted to offer a complete curriculum to all classes to train them in and by image: it was renewed for this 2023 edition. Through workshops designed by professionals, schoolchildren discover the professions of the image, confront a diversity of viewpoints, learn to sharpen their looks. By becoming aware of the various ways of seeing and looking, children fully perceive the world around them and their ability to get involved.

The kindergartens were introduced to the portrait «like Arcimboldo» with Delphine Blast. And elementary school students were able to learn surrealist photography with Roxane Daumas; decode the photo report with Marie-Hélène Labat; create a collective work, «Always Higher», with photographers Marion Esquerré and Juliette Pavy; to learn about pinhole photography with Élisabeth Schneider; to approach the portrait in stop motion with Clothilde Evide; and to approach the notion of globalization of the image through photographic postcards, with Alexandra Serrano.

Head into the stars © Esquerré & Pavy

Eloquence contest

In partnership with the Centre pour l'Éducation aux Médias et à l'Information (Clemi) of the Académie de Normandie and the Calvados department, an educational action for school students is being conducted this year from a corpus of photographs from the 2023 edition of the Festival. Students from Normandy in fourth grade are invited to propose radio productions that will give rise to an eloquence contest on June 12 in the morning in Houlgate, and that will be accessible via a flashcode on the exhibition panels.