They ask us to be mothers as if we didn’t work, and to work as if we didn’t have children.

Fatima Bianchi in conversation with Salima S. El Mandjra.

Le Cube, project partner, hosts They ask us to be mothers as if we didn’t work, and to work as if we didn’t have children, a conversation between artist Fatima Bianchi and writer and artist Salima S. El Mandjra, offering an in-depth analysis of the feminine and the maternal, from the fictional construction created by the artist to the present day.

The starting point is the screening of Les Dissidentes, a project by Fatima Bianchi produced by Careof and La Société du Sensible, with the support of the Italian Council (11th edition, 2022): a film that highlights issues linked to the maternal role and often made taboo by contemporary society, where women are constantly under pressure.

Les Dissidentes – synopsis
Three mothers are exiled to an island, under constant surveillance. They are forced to work in an open-air prison for daring to rebel against the conventions of motherhood imposed by society. Their inner voices expose the difficulties they face, often considered taboo.

Through film, Fatima Bianchi explores family ties, personal memory, the female condition and motherhood. Inspired by the events of daily life, the repetition of gestures and micro-stories, she is interested in the experience of the individual as a unique phenomenon who grows within a community and makes it grow in turn.

In her work, Salima S. El Mandjra examines the way in which women are viewed socially and culturally.  She examines the behavior of mothers in our society (HERstory) and deals with the mother’s relationship with her children (Aux creux du silence). The nature of filiation is one of the themes of her latest work MurMurer.

Fatima Bianchi’s project is supported by the Italian Council (11th edition, 2022), a program for the support and international promotion of Italian contemporary art run by the Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea (DGCC) of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
The project is promoted by Careof in collaboration with Le Cube (Rabat, Morocco), with the cultural partnership of Films Femmes Méditerranée (Marseille, France), KORA – Ramdom (Lecce, Italy), Zeit (Cagliari, Italy).
The work Les Dissidentes, produced by Careof and La Société du Sensibile, will become part of the collections of MART – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (Italy).

image: Fatima Bianchi, Les Dissidentes, 2024

Documentation:
Text “Peines de Mères” by Salima S. El Mandjra