• 02:42 Becoming a bad woman
  • 06:23 To speak up, even when you are terrorized
  • 10:49 From painting to collective practice
  • 19:19 Fear and white fragility
  • 24:05 Art and precarity
  • 26:57 Entering the music industry
  • 30:05 Depression as a form of resistance
  • 33:10 Taking responsibility
  • 37:12 On performance
  • 38:34 Dark humour
  • 41:04 Working around discomfort
  • 42:52 Psychoanalysis, feminist literature, sci-fi and pop stars
23/01/2020 48' 52''
English

Belgian artist and musician Céline Gillain (b. 1979) split her time between working as a high school art teacher and the solitary practice of painting in her Brussels studio, until one day she had enough and organised a residency for six female artists at her grandmother’s house.

Five years of collective experimentation with other women paved the way for the creation of hybrid, solo performances combining artistic research, the staging of her speculative writing, and catchy pop songs, carefully woven through complex and seemingly sooth and seamless narratives.

And just before she turned forty –the cut-off age for having children according to a social obligation that still persists– she decided to radically change the course of her career and officially enter the world of the music industry and festivals, with the launch of her debut LP Bad Woman. She has since continued to follow the thread of her discoveries and obsessions, while embracing the prerogative of making audiences dance.

In this podcast, Céline Gillain talks about the power of fragility and about depression as a form of resistance today. She describes her stage fright and fear of making a mistake under the spotlights, in the face of the moral and political obligation to take control of her life, as a woman. Imbued with a strong class consciousness and an awareness of her inherited privileges, Céline speaks out against the privatisation of the art world and notes the need for collective discussion. Paradoxically, her current media of choice are a mix of pop songs, motivational speeches, and updated fictions from the entertainment world, which run through everyday life in a darkly humorous, inimitable way.

Son[i]aCéline Gillainfeminismfemale producersmalaise society#8M

Related RWM programmes