5 VOICES FOR 1

"Silenced forever their voices shall take the places of the stars"

“5 voices for 1” is an artistic project which aims to give echo to female voices that are silenced all around the world. Aim is to give voice not only to our western society, which even after the feminist movement of the 20th century still faces the reality of women’s voices being unheard and undervalued, but to unify silenced voices from everywhere. For this reason the project aims to bring together women that suffered repression through slavery and forced prostitution and 5 young female artists from different cultures: Lenna Bahule (Mozambique), Betzabel Falfan (Mexico), Silvia Ribero (Italy), Min Jun Park (South Korea) and Angie Rottensteiner (Austria).

One part of the project idea was inspired by the violent murdering of the British politician Jo Cox some months ago. Killed by a fascist in the street, she is one more female victim that had to pay for her free expression and self-confidential being. Her death provoked compassion and solidarity throughout the world but also provoked the question:What or who will replace this important voice silenced forever? And what about the voices of other victims of repression of any kind, whom mistreatments have no echoes at all? This reflection leaded to the title of the project: “5 voices for 1”. What if for each repressed voice that disappears, five new voices would take space in order to achieve equality, respect and peace?

A second part of the project idea was inspired by an artistic workshop with Nigerian refugees conduced by BILOURA in Italy in 2015. During the workshop, which lasted four months, it appeared clear how immigrants are oppressed in a large scale not only in Europe but all around the world and how few their voices are heard. Especially female immigrant are abused and mistreated on a large scale, being victims of slavery and forced prostitution. Starting from an artistic workshop with victims of forced prostitutions, BILOURA aims an artistic creation resulting from the echo of these voices.

The substantial aim of “5 voices for 1” is to give echo to these particular women, whom today, really now, are living in Europe and elsewhere. The artistic approach of the project functions as a tool to produce echos of the voices of these women without risking their identification which might endanger them. The five artists function as communicators by using their crafts to produce those echoes.

Besides the content “5 voices for 1” aims also to be a meeting point for different artistic languages and a chance to fuse them in an original form that can be used as a tool. In fact the five artists come from different backgrounds: music, dance, performing, acting, directing. Difference and similitude are the keys.