Louise Bourgeois, the stimulating sculptor
“I discovered her in Art school, and since then, I haven’t stopped loving learning about her. Her work is committed, feminist, while remaining accessible and popular. Everyone loves Louise Bourgeois’ spiders, without necessarily knowing that they are something very intimate and very dark. I also like the fact that she crossed all the eras of art, starting at a time when it was complicated for a woman to be an artist, and quite late in terms of age. Because she took a long break to raise her children, before making a strong gesture by transforming her kitchen into a workshop, after their departure. It amuses me that she said to herself: Food for others is over!”
“The most intense part of his career actually took place towards the end, creating until he was 98 years old. Having female role models who are doing things after 50 is always empowering. They remind us that the best part of life is ahead. In art, it’s even obvious: the older we get, the more we get rid of what prevents us from creating and the fear of how others will look. I also like all those who paint late in life like Alice Neel.”
Robin Hobb, the Trojan Horse author
“In a harsh climate, fantasy is my oxygen bubble, and Robin Hobb, my favorite author. She creates very good literature, without forgetting, again, an incredible existence. Raised in Alaska, she lived in remote places delivering mail, while raising three children, before starting writing at age 40. She is now 72 years old and her work continues to improve. Her real name is Margaret, but in her early days the environment was so male-dominated that she chose a man’s name. She’s the George Sand of fantasy.”
“In her saga, she addresses themes such as the desire or not to have children, sexual assault, the determination to prefer adventure to the role of housewife, and we come across rich female characters, to whom a woman can believe. In fact, I only have female authors left on my pile of books to read because since women have more chances of being published, they offer strong propositions and innovative points of view. I can no longer stand ultra-stereotypical female characters invented by men. And then there are also so many fascinating women’s biographies to catch up on.”
“As for Robin Hobb, she is an excellent Trojan horse for converting those around her to fantasy because in her first volumes, she mainly relates court intrigues and politics that everyone loves. But little by little, boom, one or two dragons appear. I offer it a lot.”
Bernadette Després, the designer of a generation
“Women who create always inspire me, especially because I discovered them late and I am convinced that I would have grown up differently knowing that so many existed. I find, for example, that the designer Bernadette Després, who has just died, did not get the recognition she deserved, even though she left her mark on a generation. As a child, his comic strip Tom Tom and Nana was my religion. I waited for its pages every month, which I purposely read very slowly.”
“I think she started this comic strip by chance, in 1977, because she was asked to invent characters and she said to herself that it was necessary to speak at the level of children. Tom Tom and Nana get up to lots of elaborate mischief, which is a treat for a child to read, and at the same time, it all happens in a reassuring setting, with an overwhelmed but loving family.”
“Later, I was angry to see that she was never cited among the masters of comics. I voted for her every year at the Grand Prix d’Angoulême, which rewards a work with a significant impact. But she will never get it in her lifetime. For a long time, female cartoonists were only tolerated if they worked in children’s illustrations, which were considered harmless. Moreover, all the tributes paid to Bernadette Després have praised her naive and childish trait. A man would never inherit these qualifiers. To succeed in being as fair as her, you actually need a very effective clear line. Bernadette Després was above all an excellent designer.”
-Björk, the punchy musician
“I have taken instrument lessons all my life, I love playing them, even if I play them badly, I am married to a musician, and music represents the strongest emotional charge for me. I cry to music. I also think that the environment is cruel towards women, perhaps even more than in painting, by seeking to make them objects rather than subjects. But Björk has managed to become a total artist, on whom nothing is imposed. He’s a musical genius. At 7 years old, she already knew how to play 14 instruments, before joining a punk group as a teenager, and exploring everything, always making ultra-cutting choices.
“I sometimes spend entire afternoons listening to Björk playlists when I’m drawing, and everything seems ahead of its time every time. I grew up in the 1990s when there were only male rock bands, which I thought was cool. I was then convinced that music was a guy thing. And then I discovered Björk, and Courtney Love and Missy Elliott, women capable of doing everything: talking about sexuality in their songs, claiming to be women, making money, helping others make money. They represent my first powerful revelation.”
Kathrine Switzer, the powerful marathon runner
“This marathon runner is my idol, and her memoir is a bible of feminist reflections on emancipation through sport, a subject that I find important. Not very sporty at first, I started running 10 years ago, and it became a passion that ticked all the boxes that I like: it’s solitary, we don’t aim for perfection but for progression, all the knots in the head come undone while running. I even participate in marathons, training very hard. It’s something that doesn’t depend on my job or my relationship, and that no one will take away from me. And I remain excited by the story of Kathrine Switzer. In 1967, she registered under her initials for the Boston Marathon which was forbidden to women because it was claimed that long races damaged their reproductive organs. As if that was their only function.”
“When the media discovered Kathrine Switzer in the race, there was a lot of commotion and one of the organizers even tried to bring her down. Frightened, she accelerates, finishing the marathon with a great time. She became a multi-marathoner and sports journalist. In 1984, it was she who commented on the first marathon race at the Los Angeles Olympics, letting the stadium hear the arrival of the first woman. The archive is overwhelming.”
“One day, I would like to write a book on sport because I think the world would be different if women gained confidence in themselves in sport. Running has given me confidence in things that are not at all natural to me, and have nothing to do with shape or aesthetics. This is a discovery of one’s own power.”
Course
After studying at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris, then at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, Pénélope Bagieu directed a short film (No more laughing), which circulates in all festivals. Before his career took off, from comic to comic: Exquisite corpse, Panties, California dreamin’, The Strata (in which she recounts her experience of sexual assault). In 2019, she was awarded the prestigious Eisner Prize. And even sings a cover of Just Can’t Get Enough on his companion’s new album, Waxx.
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