The biennal festival is the founding event of the Voix De Femmes Project (since 1991!).
Since its first edition, the festival reveals the multiplicity and diversity of practices and knowledge that women artists bring to the table. It believes in encounters, exchanges and dialogue. It has an overt weakness to research, experimenting and adventurous endeavours.
Today, – 13 editions later – the festival is still the event that most widely embodies the association's project and offers it (inter)national visibility.
Since its creation, the festival has taken multiple forms in its temporality, its artistic line-up, its locations and its home ports. Over the years, it has adapted to the change in the artist’s status and practices, to its needs but also to the cultural politics, current events and the reflection of the times. Its resilience and adaptability have proven very successful.
Voix De Femmes is now close to 15 days of a festival well-established in Liege, with regular excursions to other Belgian cities. It takes place in autumn, in late October, every odd-numbered year.
Next edition >>> 2023 : Esprit de suite
Glossary
Woman (female – and reductive – noun)
Since 1991, Voix De Femmes (Women’s Voices) showcases the work of (people who identify as) women. A positioning which is (still) necessary, but also anchored within a reductive vision on gender inequalities of its time.
Today, the programmes of Voix De Femmes have been extended to gender diverse people, who are also underrepresented in the cultural sphere. Collectives, companies and mixed groups are invited only if the person who is initiating the project corresponds to this profile.
Engagement
The lack of visibility of artistic practices carried out by women and gender diverse people is still blatant, whereas, on the contrary, it would be necessary to change representations, generate models, encourage vocations. Programming only women artists and gender diverse people today remains a feminist and activist act we strongly believe in and keep carrying on.
Voix De Femmes showcases projects and artists who are, in their own way, activists. We define activism in its widespread notion. It is not limited in any way to issues of gender or gender equality... Activism can come in multiple forms (leaving commercial channels to invest in the alternative scene is one approach) and can touch on any issue imaginable.
Diversity is not only expressed through the disciplines represented: Voix De Femmes is also very much about cultural diversity. We deeply invest in this notion, of course, in its geographic acceptance but we especially envision it through personal or artistic journeys, practices and activism. We’re far from a “protectionist” approach: we’re also interested in intersections and intertwining!
Pluri/trans/multi-disciplinary
Voix De Femmes truly loves all artistic disciplines. It also particularly likes them when they are mixed together and when they confront one another, but also when they explore other fields: human sciences, activism, or [surprise us!] ...
The music at Voix De Femmes, until now, has been mostly international, while the plastic arts and performance has been mostly Belgian. But this, of course, is only waiting to be transformed.
We are committed to this project’s founding pluri-disciplinary dimension. Inseparable from contemporary creation and its hybrid formats, pluri- and inter-disciplinary settings have never been so rich and relevant.
Limits
None. VDF places great emphasis on creations, to one shots, and to projects with a touch of craziness – not best-sellers – that fall outside of the box. It highlights living practices (not static), or even emerging ones. Based on the principle of discovery, it offers formats to support the creation and sharing that favours experimentation and the appearance of new, sometimes out-of-the-ordinary forms.
Encounter
Without encounters, everything else is pointless. The festival is a place of exchange, reflection and experimentation, including for the less-seasoned. This can happen spontaneously, front stage, of course. But it can go much further when we dedicate real time and real space to it: through themed encounters, but also with an increasingly broad programme of DIY workshops and constant reflection on the events’ accessibility. For instance, Voix De Femmes workshops are always donation-based and in solidarity.