Artistic approach
Collective Hysteria is an immersive art installation that questions our relationship with the feminine. Through this multitude of suspended uteruses, we seek to name what is often passed over in silence: PAIN, STRENGTH, MEMORY, INJUSTICES... AND ALL THAT SHAPES OUR LIVES.
Hysteria
The word carries with it the whole story we're telling. The uterus as the supposed origin of female madness, WOMAN WHO RESISTS QUALIFIED AS UNCONTROLLABLE, the female body pathologized since Antiquity. We've chosen to turn it upside down, to reclaim it. To make the word that has served to confine us THE NAME OF OUR FREEDOM.
Hysteria, too, for what we see in the installation: OUR SUSPENDED UTERUSES MOVE, TURN, SHAKE to the whim of the fans. Their movement is anarchic, random, alive. They are not wise. They're not aligned. They occupy space as they see fit.
Collective, because what's told here isn't about a few. IT CONCERNS ALL OF US.
Why did we create this project?
It all began with a meeting. Three artists from different worlds, a shared desire to create together, and the intuition that something important could emerge from this convergence.
In autumn 2025, we find ourselves in residence at the Rhumerie Karukera for three weeks. THE CHALLENGE: MAKE AS MANY UTERUS AS POSSIBLE, with salvaged materials. Each of us brings her own ideas and know-how, which we share and discuss. Some pieces are personal, others collective, ALL ARE BORN OF EXCHANGE.
As women, we know that the female condition remains fragile and too often taboo: menstruation, menopause, endometriosis, violence, aggression, feminicide... We also carry the conviction that MOST PEOPLE THINK WOMEN'S RIGHTS ARE ACQUIRED. They're not. They never have been. And current events remind us of this every day: the right to abortion is called into question, rape is used as a weapon of war, feminicides, mutilations, pathologies linked to femininity are not taken into account.
COLLECTIVE HYSTERIA COLLECTIVE AIMS TO RAISE AWARENESS AND GIVE VOICE TO THESE REALITIES. It's not a fight against men. It's a fight against violence, injustice and setbacks. Against everything that crushes, controls and erases.
Choice of wombs
EVERY UTERUS IS A SYMBOL.
By showing and multiplying an organ usually invisible and intimate, often controlled or instrumentalized, we seek to reverse perspectives. By physically saturating the space with these suspended forms, the installation reverses the balance of power: it's no longer the female body that's caught up in a discourse of domination, but the space itself, long thought of by and for men, that is reappropriated.
Each uterus is both a symbol and a portrait. Some explicitly denounce violence and inequality, others reflect our pleasure in creating and working with different materials: paper, metal, x-rays, cardboard, fabric, packaging...
Together, they form an immersive installation that questions and challenges, RACTING THE DIVERSITY OF FEMALE EXPERIENCES.
A living, collective installation
The installation evolves over the course of exhibitions and contributions. It can unfold as a compact cloud for an immersive experience, more airy for fluid circulation, or as fragmented clouds for smaller spaces. EACH SCENOGRAPHY IS A NEW PHYSICAL AND VISUAL EXPERIENCE.
We invite other artists to join the project to enrich this crowd of suspended wombs. THE AIM IS TO CREATE A REAL COLLECTIVE HYSTERIA, where every gesture and every voice contributes to the whole, in a dialogue between engaged art and plastic experience.
To accommodate the installation
If you'd like to host L'installation Hystérie Collective, collaborate or find out more, we'd love to hear from you.
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