Exposed

Paris, March 2025.

In the course of their careers, writings go through different exhibition regimes. They may be written for oneself or for others, displayed for legal or ceremonial reasons – in other words, to be seen, but not necessarily read, by more or less wide-ranging audiences. According to Béatrice Fraenkel, some written documents are posted for copying – including the legal documents of Roman antiquity, where copying was intended to enable citizens to propose amendments – or, for a long time, timetables or university examination results.
Today, with the miniaturisation of cameras and the evolution of repertoires of collective action, the writings of street demonstrations are designed and traced to be photographed and shared online in order to extend their readership. Even if they are modestly executed by taking a cardboard box from a delivery, sticking a blank sheet of paper on it and writing with a single black felt-tip pen, this writing re-enacts the founding practices of democratic public space: winning support with a good slogan, constructing a watchword, symbolising a position. In so doing, the women authors, like their writing, find themselves widely exposed, which is not without raising new questions.