Presentation — Creation, Art, Movements and Manifestations: Spaces of Resistance and Re-existence

Abstract

From every place, voices emerge. Some voices are clear and distinct; others fade into the distance. The matter seems, at first glance, to be a physical one, a question of proximity between the place of utterance and the place of reception. A whisper spoken into one’s ear is audible, but someone far away who seeks to capture our attention must shout. If that cry is cast from too far away, there is a gap between the reach of the ear and the reach of the voice; we do not hear a cry launched from such a distance: it is muffled, absorbed, reduced to background noise. And yet, voices continue to emerge from every place, in an effort to draw near. A voice is a petition for care. It is a sound produced by someone who wishes to make themselves heard, who wants to be listened to, who longs for someone to hear them. A voice is a way of overcoming distance. If the abyss between the reach of the ear and the reach of the voice has not yet been bridged, if that voice seeking our attention remains, despite its effort, little more than silence, then the effort must be shared — it falls upon the attentive listener to move closer in order to hear. This Dossier is an active effort of approximation toward those who speak, an attempt to listen to some of the voices that, in our daily lives, we so often leave unheard.