Prendre la parole

2022 – 2024
Installation
Site specific dimensions and amount of objects
Installation view: 80 objects, dimensions: 3,5 x 8 x 3 meters
Megaphones from stoneware, high fired, partly engobed and glazed
The work is accompanied by multiple public debating sessions with pottery, écriture automatique and readings
Prendre la parole literally means to take the word or to take the speech. It is a notion I encountered during my studies in Marseille. I have made it the starting point for an auto-theoretical and impulsive research around finding my own ways of speaking: as a woman, as an artist, with my own story, in a world that is on fire.
Sculpture by artist Laura Mahnke
Sculptural installation Prendre la parole by artist Laura Mahnke
Sculptural installation Prendre la parole by artist Laura Mahnke
Two red creamic megaphones facing each other
Installation by artist Laura Mahnke
Detail of sculptural installation Prendre la parole by artist Laura Mahnke

Prendre la parole is about becoming and staying sane as a person and a society. It is about claiming space for yourself. But it is also about entendre la parole des autres, literally to take in the words of others. Speaking is always about listening, too. What we have to learn most urgently is that the aim of debate must not always be agreement. I want us to become stronger and more patient, so we can listen to each other and endure feelings of disagreement. I want to agree on the fact that everything is complicated because people carry all their baggage and thus are complex, ambivalent, inconsistent, contradictory, and not either/or. I want to agree on protecting those who need it most in the first place and step back with our egos and the need to win an argument. I want us to recognize when we’d rather shut up. I want us to realize when we need to act instead of talk.

Sculpture by artist Laura Mahnke
Sculpture by artist Laura Mahnke
Sculpture by artist Laura Mahnke
Sculpture by artist Laura Mahnke
Detail of sculptural installation Prendre la parole by artist Laura Mahnke
Collection of black and white images showing workshops and readings by artist Laura Mahnke

LM