Lisa was joined by Rosa Brigone from the Luxembourg organisation Time for Equality (TFE) and Italian journalist and photographer Stefania Prandi who is in Luxembourg at the invitation of Time For Equality.
Stefania’s latest exhibition photographic exhibition has opened at Rotondes and is called Les Consequences, and is a pictorial report detailing the lives of families of femicide victims.
Lisa started by asking Rosa why Time for Equality felt it was important to extended the invitation to Stefania and to bring the body of work to Luxembourg. In fact this is not the first time the two have come together, Stefania was in Luxembourg a number of years ago with another collection, so her work was known to the team.
Femicide is a word that is frequently used in Italy, Spain and South America, but less so in the anglophone world. It refers to the murder - or disappearance - of a woman because of her sex, out of hatred, contempt, pleasure or a feeling of possession. These murders are often the crime of the partner.
As a photographer Stefania has chosen to focus on the people left behind, because those who suffer the consequences are mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, children. They are often ignored by the media and abandoned by the institutions, they have the pain, the tomorrows, the frozen memories kept in frames, the legal costs, the humiliations before the courts, the media treatment, the secondary victimization. By focusing on these families Stefania offered them space to talk and share memories of their loved ones, not everyone approached was willing to take part in the project, but many did. In fact there seems to be a move by many families to shift towards activism as part of their struggle for justice for their loved one. Stefania went to lengths to ensure that the wishes of each family were respected; some were more, others less involved in the project.
The aim of Les Consequences is to help people understand that what these families went through was not due to a stroke of bad luck or a mistake: the causes of feminicide are rooted in society and in a sexist culture. Its consequences concern society as a whole.
For three years Stefania Prandi has collected portraits, images of objects and places, as well as stories. Each image presents the point of view of people who experience the consequences of feminicide on a daily basis.
Stefania’s work is always gender based, take a look at her website and discover important topics such as the exploitation of female migrant workers, especially in Italy and Spain.
The Open Air exhibition is at Rotondes until mid November.
https://www.rotondes.lu/en/agenda/expressions-of-humanity-the-consequences
Visit more of Stefania’s work here
Listen to the full interview below