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The author of the unforgettable King Kong Theory was at Le Nouveau Monde on Sunday evening, where she will return on Monday to deliver her punk panorama of contemporary feminisms. Impactful!
Casey, Béatrice Dalle and Virginie Despentes, three angry women in front of the four men in concert from the post-punk combo Zëro. © Chloé Lambert
Published on 04/28/2024
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
We didn’t think we would one day have to refer to Aristotle when leaving a feminist recitative. But there was indeed in this communion of committed avant-gardes the soothing burning of catharsiswhere the scene revives the symbols of a contemporary malaise, purges the soul of an audience of its unformulated anger.
A crowd, in fact, last night at the Nouveau Monde! Attentive, vibrant, plural, feminine a lot, masculine too, young especially, in short we are upset because yes it hits here, at the heart of this militant incantation fomented by the rock priestess Virginie Despentes, and directed against the itching of sexism, racism, heteronormativity, phallocracy, ambient intolerance.
Uttered, belched
She did not come alone, the author of the unforgotten King Kong Theoryaccompanied by other ardent promoters of Troubles, named after this performative pamphlet that she deploys on tour after having already brought the words of the rebels Pasolini and Calaferte on stage. Alongside the oracular, just as expected, the faithful Béatrice Dalle (creoles in the ears, pink in the eyes, emotion played on the surface of words), and the “enemy of order” Casey, rapper with a sharp timbre , sharp bite against the asphalt of the cities. Three angry women standing in front of four men in concert, the Lyon post-punk combo Zëro accompanying the texts uttered, chanted and belched with their soaring harshness.
Messengers, humble but vehement, venerated but venerated, with incendiary words.
© Chloé Lambert
Lecterns decorated with small lamps, texts printed on A4 sheets, glasses – it’s a reading experience. Inner-crushing bass, smoky lights, hypnotic atmospheres – it’s a show. To tell the truth, we don’t really know, it’s not about literature or rock but about revolution. THE We is at the front of the stage, the stars dressed in black are only messengers, humble but vehement, venerated but venerated, with incendiary remarks.
From the great American voice Donna Haraway to the influential thinker of degendered society Paul B. Preciado via the pioneer Angela Davis, it is a very dense panorama of new feminisms nourished by ecology, queer philosophy and anti-racism . In a format halfway between the TED Talk on the convergence of struggles and the loud jam, the texts follow one another, read in polyphony or solo, in which it is a question of Chthulucene, antivirilism, hierarchy of the sexes, of transidentity and relationship to the non-human. On pulsations with heady distortions, always carefully distilled, the words of the first ecofeminist Françoise d’Eaubonne flap in the wind of another time, ours, where much remains to be done. “We are for the total and irreversible abolition of sexism and patriarchy!” and the crowd noisily approves, raised beer or V-fingers.
Facing us, a they focusing all the punchlines. But this striking reader’s digest of theoretical feminism does not, however, become indictive. “There is only one universe, the same for everyone,” recalls Despentes in his own text which is a salutary reminder of gentleness and benevolence. An hour and ten later, “we don’t have a call back, thank you, it was great”, the lights come back on and the merchandising awaits the public at the exit: t-shirts, pins. And books to reread.
