Félicie Chainon, president of Imani, a women's and children's non-profit, was appalled. Gabriel Ferrier's 1879 painting was definitely not going down well. The subject, a scene from the Spanish Inquisition, is admittedly brutal: a naked young woman, her wrists bound, is about to be burned at the stake. "When you're a woman and you don't fit in, you're singled out," extrapolated Chainon. "Every time someone wants to humiliate a woman, they depict her naked in a scene of extreme violence," said Aminata Dango, co-founder of the Djamma-Djigui non-profit, which fights against domestic violence. One thing led to another, and now here they are, discussing mental burdens and sisterhood with two other women sitting next to them, Ramata Kapo and Awa Ba, involved in the fight against excision and polygamy.

Published on the Musée d'Orsay's website on Friday, March 8 to mark International Women's Rights Day (as International Women's Day in called in France), this eight-minute exchange is the fruit of a partnership between the Parisian museum and the Puissance de femmes ("Power of women") collective, whose members use works of art to address four issues that deeply concern them, resulting in four videos about violence against women, racism, financial emancipation and prostitution.

The story began in July 2022. At an event organized by the organization Institut de l'Engagement, Virginie Donzeaud, the museum's deputy general administrator, met Mariam Sissoko. This communications consultant in her thirties had created Puissance de femmes a year earlier to bring together women who, with the resources at hand, are fighting against abuse and discrimination. Not to mention the insidious glass ceiling − or sticky floor − that leads many women to give up on their dreams. "Why do these women struggle to make themselves known and recognized when they are responding to real needs? "argued Sissoko, determined to force open the doors of power, particularly cultural power, to give them visibility.

A strong sense of unity emanates from the ten or so members of the collective (there are 50 in total) who gathered at the museum on a Monday when it was closed. The women respect each other's turn to speak, exchange knowing glances and give each other a leg up. When one of them is at a loss for words, the more talkative ones encourage her: "But it's incredible what you're doing." "Women save lives," insists lawyer Emmanuelle Andrez, head of the Ré-Enchantement non-profit, which encourages vulnerable individuals in the field of arts and crafts.

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