Face_WSLOT (Woman See Lot of Things)

"At what point do those people beyond your self-created demarcation lines become no longer your direct concern? (...) Violence surrounds you, the only question is whether you choose to actively acknowledge its existence or emit an ephemeral laugh of rejection." (Meira Asher)

Face_WSLOT (Woman See Lot of Things) is the first project in the Face trilogy, dissecting the experience of contemporary social conflict in the lives of children and youth in different locations worldwide. It aims at enhancing social awareness by the means of art and generating support through the direction of financial resources back into the subject area in the form of a separate support initiative.

Face_WSLOT explores the lives of three female former child-combatants in post-war Sierra Leone, and confronts the psychophysical adjustments they undergo in order to come to terms with their experience. The depth at which they share their realities and opinions with us clarifies the plight of the child combatant, as well as a scourge that exists in at least 40 other countries. Girls and women who have undergone similar such plight have been strengthened by their terrible experience; empowered by their past and the present, they demand a just society.

Numerous girls were abducted and raped, forcibly recruited, or volunteered for protection. They were used as combatants, sex slaves and labourers by all parties involved in the-decade long civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In addition to combat duties, many were subject to sexual abuse; some were taken as concubines by rebel commanders, impregnated and forced to brutalise others.

The interdisciplinary installation is the result of an intensive collaboration with the subject group. The past experience, present-day existence, together with the mutual feedback of past and present in their lives, are expressed by means of sound, video, photography, transformed objects combined with real-time electronics, chemically modified fabrics and aroma, in a transformed space. Meira Asher

Moderna galerija: from 6th October to 20th October; Tue-Sun: 10 am - 6 pm
Concept, direction, realisation: Meira Asher
Co-realisation: Joost Nieuwenburg
Textile work: Henia Eizenberg

Organisation: City of Women
In collaboration with: Moderna galerija
With the kind support of: Royal Netherlands Embassy - Ljubljana, programme: Matra KAP Bilateral Focus: Netherlands & Slovenia