Femme Vie Liberté

Since September 2022, an unprecedented wave of protest has swept across Iran, driven by the cries of anger and hope from women and men demanding their freedom at the cost of their lives. The trigger for this mobilization was the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who was arrested and killed by the morality police on September 16, 2022. This tragedy sparked a massive protest movement that spread to all cities in Iran, bringing together women who took to the streets, supported by men, to demand an end to the oppressive laws imposed since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Among their demands are notably the abolition of the mandatory hijab and a desire for profound change in the Iranian political system.

Faced with these legitimate demands, the Iranian regime has responded with brutal repression: arrests, torture, harsh sentences, and death sentences. Yet, the resistance continues unabated. These acts of courage inspire the world and find particular resonance in artistic circles. Since the beginning of these revolts, art centers, galleries, theaters, and foundations in Iran have closed their doors, refusing to contribute to a normalization of the situation. At the same time, on the international scene, many artists and graphic designers have committed themselves to supporting the Iranian people by creating images that document and accompany this revolution. Posters, posters, animated videos, or stencils: these visual creations draw as much on Iranian iconographic heritage as on universal visual codes from other historical struggles, such as those in Cuba or May 68. Persian calligraphy blends with contemporary graphic design to convey a powerful message on social networks and in space.

The exhibition presented at the Una Volta Cultural Center in Bastia in partnership with the FRAC Corsica picks up on the initiative launched in 2023 to mark International Women's Day on March 8th and highlights a selection of these posters and visual creations. By presenting them within its walls, the Una Volta Cultural Center is joining this global wave of solidarity. This approach aims not only to provide greater visibility to the struggle led by Iranian women and men, but also to reaffirm the universal values ​​of emancipation and freedom. Here, art becomes an act of resistance, a vector of hope, and a call for collective mobilization.

Upstairs, the same orientation is proposed in a more intimate vein: Niyaz Azadikhah's three animated videos explore the same Iranian context as the Femme Vie Liberté posters, while Françoise Grossen's Embryo takes on a metaphorical dimension through a mutating organic form that symbolizes the profound transformations and the process of women's emancipation. All of these works are part of the FRAC Corsica collection.