In February 2017, Les Femmes s’en Mêlent festival (LFSM) and Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire (LFDC) decided to celebrate their 20th anniversary together. These two Paris-based institutions both develop and defend an original and finally quite similar vision of women artistic expression. For this reason, it only seemed natural for the gallery to host an exhibition on the history of the festival and more broadly, on women iconography in the music world.

We all remember the rock heroines from the 70’s and the beginning of the 80’s such as Patti Smith, Blondie and Kate Bush, as well as their more underground versions the Slits, Siouxsie, Poly Styrene from X-Ray Spex or Nina Hagen. They embody the unique atmosphere of a radical era, which inspired a multitude of today’s female figures, most of them being presented during the LFSM festival.

We intend to revisit twenty years of festival through sound and visual documents along with the exhibition of contemporary artworks and vintage archives in order to explore the history of the event and everything that nurtured it. The audience will have the opportunity to discover concert photographs and artist portraits (Evelyne Coutas, Sarah Bastin, Florie Berger, Renaud Montfourny, Cécil Mathieu, Vincent Ferrané), paintings and drawings (Radenko Milak, Ditte Ejlerskov, LUZ), emblematic artworks of the “rock attitude” (SMITH, Karen Knorr & Olivier Richon, Charlotte Beaudry), text excerpts (Virginie Despentes, Maylis de Kerangas), posters (Hélène Builly, Mylène Lestradic…), articles, magazine covers and rare vinyls.

Between fantasy and reality, the exhibition will be the occasion to go into a pop and female graphic universe through the eye of Les Femmes s’en Mêlent, where rock icons stand alongside anonymous people and tell the subjective and dashing visual story of the female music scene.

A movie projection night will complement the exhibition. Les Femmes s’en mêlent Festival will be held in Paris from March 27th to 31st, and in the rest of France from March 23rd to April 1st.