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De Montesquiou Eleonore

Parole à la femme

Doc. expérimental | dv | noir et blanc | 8:35 | Estonie, Togo | 2010

?Parole à la femme? is a radio broadcast in Togo devoted to women. It lasts less than ten minutes. At first, a cereal retailer in a market is invited to speak. She tells about her economic calculations and about the market relationship in African villages. The next participant after her is a female diet adviser. I chose to transmit this broadcast because of the eloquence of the various participants, but overall because it was one of the rare attempts I witnessed of giving women in Africa the chance to speak, of paying attention to those who spend their entire days carrying heavy weights, cooking and taking care of their many babies or young children.

Eléonore de Montesquiou (1970, Paris, France, Franco-Estonian artist) her work revolves around the articulation between private and official histories, personal and national identities. It tackles the intricacies and ambiguities of living in the margins, based on her personal experience of uprootedness. Eléonore primarily working with video, she tapes testimonies, creating prosthetic memories of repressed histories. In her documentary-informed works, her camera becomes the voice of these voiceless people. Her work is based on a documentary approach, translated in films, drawings and texts, it deals mainly with issues of integration/immigration/meaning of a nation in Estonia, giving voice to the Russian community.