En Son Sein: an exhibition by Emma Boittiaux
By Miriam Kimvangu
En Son Sein is a photography collection by French artist and activist, Emma Boittiaux, which explores the relationship between women and their breasts. The exhibition launched on the 6th of October at Juju’s Bar & Stage accompanied by a talk between Emma and SLEEC (Survivor’s Leading Essential Education and Change) co-founder Meggan discussing taking back ownership of our narratives through art.
As the internet and particularly social media is a political space, Emma is using her platform and art in hopes of shifting society’s view of women through giving them control over their own narrative. She goes on to explain the reason behind this collection saying, “Starting to find ways to shift the sexualisation of women that is perpetuated by western society is through women taking photos of other women and portraying them the way they are. If they want to be sexual, they can be. If they just want to be there and just take up the space to do their art, that’s what we need to see more of.”
SLEEC has a similar goal as they initially started as a mutual aid resilience fund for survivors of domestic abuse. What sets them apart from many charities is that the women they help do not have to prove any sexual violence that they have faced, their vulnerability or even that they are recovering from trauma which many organisations require. They give women the option to spend the money they receive however they see fit to build resilience. This along with the rest of the work they are doing and plan to do, is also a way to shift society’s view on how a ‘victim’ should look or present themselves. They are multi-dimensional human beings as are the people that harm them. They should be allowed to experience their trauma and pain in whatever way feels natural and right for them and no one else can tell you otherwise. “That also needs to be spoken about. We need to be seeing, in our day to day lives, imagery of those that have experienced harm, looking normal, sexy, hot, kinky and rageful, sad and depressed and having breakdowns and orgasms or whatever,” says Meggan.
While both women are using vastly different ways to bring this message across, everything that they said perfectly captured the essence of what Emma is trying to portray through En Son Sein using photography and sculpture. While she cannot control how her collection will be received by others, the hope is that by giving the models a safe space where they can choose how to be portrayed and normalise breasts being viewed as natural instead of being sexualised and politicised.
The full collection can be viewed on https://www.emmaboittiaux.com/en-son-sein or on her Instagram https://www.instagram.com/emmaboittiaux/?hl=en.
More information on SLEEC and the work they do can be found at https://linktr.ee/SLEEC.