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Piles of sand, broken bricks and pieces of metal litter the floor of the Henriette-Bathily Women’s Museum in Dakar, Senegal. In the center of the room, black and white drawings depict women dissolving into concrete. A little further on, a series of photos depicts a woman wrapped in a golden survival blanket against a background of buildings under construction.
Until May 15, the museum, a massive building that runs along the western cornice of the Senegalese capital, is hosting the “Territories” exhibition. By this metaphor of the construction site, spun throughout the device, the French artist Sophie Le Hire at the origin of the project wanted to symbolize street harassment through the city, aggressive and continuous.
Hissing, insults, inappropriate gestures in public transport: attacks on women are constant in public spaces. For the multidisciplinary artist who has lived in Senegal for five years, the theme of street harassment began with suffering, before turning into a cry of artistic revolt.
“Like the majority of women, I myself have been the victim of street harassment since I was a teenager, in different cities around the world, including Dakar, explains Sophie Le Hire. The work carried out with a psychologist allowed me to realize that my anger was legitimate and that these phenomena were not normal. To be recognized in this way in my ill-being gave me great strength and I wanted to talk about it in my work. »
To understand this phenomenon which affects the whole world, Sophie Le Hire surrounded herself with eight Senegalese women and one Rwandan woman from various professional backgrounds: sociologist, psychologist, town planner, lawyer… Together, they created a think tank and questioned street harassment through the prism of their areas of specialization. The exhibition reports the fruit of their work but also their approach through a twelve-minute film that combines their testimonies.
Constant and trivialized attacks
The ambition is not only artistic: the exhibition “Territories” must be the first stone of a larger project which wants to sensitize public opinion to a widespread but largely tolerated phenomenon. A survey carried out as part of the project among 250 women reveals that 91% of them have experienced situations of street harassment in Senegal.
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