Lara Y. Stepanovic

The Women project
www.womenareheroes.be
The Women project wants to underline their pivotal role and to highlight their dignity by shooting them in their daily lives and posting them on the walls of their country.
On the other hand, by posting the same images of these women in Western countries, the project allows everyone to feel concerned by their condition and connects, through art, the two different worlds. Kenya, South-Sudan, Sierra-Leone, Liberia – The violence suffered by women there is the extreme expression of discriminations. The ethnic wars in Africa are a source of the worst crimes on women. When meeting them, JR wants to testify of their force, their courage and their noble struggle: first to live, then to exist.
Right now JR is in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil where the context of favelas has encouraged to meet women for whom crime, violent lost of loved ones and arbitrary repression are part of everyday life.
In 2008/2009, JR plans to visit India, Cambodia, Laos, Marcs, then return to Kenya.
To the limits of contemporary art – the goal is once again to reach the limits of Art in a closed social and cultural environment and watch the reaction of the local population. What is at stake here is the assessment of the possibilities of intervention in the different environments. The success of such a process allows drawing a status of women in their countries. Proof by action is chosen.
→ VIDEO: EXTRAIT “WOMEN ARE HEROES”, Kibera, Kenya (more…)