ADÈLE
BackHymne des femmes - Adamée
Sometimes they carry so much anger, rage, or suffering within them that the music becomes inaudible. The first tones may give me a shade. Perhaps. But after that, I am unable to hear. Enraged, hysterical… I did not want our patriarchal society to kill this painting. So I listened to the music. “They stole from us, violated us.” That sentence came back every three minutes, like touching an open wound. But there was everything else. Three women’s voices. A cappella. A song. The song of sirens, the incantation of witches. A mother comforting her child. The gentle, slow gestures of preparing a body after death. Women full of compassion. Who do not judge. Who accept suffering. Do not deny it. I softened her features as one washes a body. As one rocks a child. She never lost her anger. But we were there. Perhaps that is what sisterhood is. Original text in French, translated by AI Photograph: LP/Olivier Corsan, Paris, 2020