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Whitewashing is a performance initiated by artist Rébecca Chaillon, written in collaboration with author, director, and performer Aurore Déon. This ever-evolving poetic and performative piece, which adapts and reinvents itself with every iteration, is not merely a variation of Carte Noire nommée Désir, the show that premiered in 2021—rather, it is the very essence of that project, the core from which it was born. “Since 2017, a persistent question has driven us: how do we speak about our experiences as Black women in France? One of the earliest realizations in creating this performance was the need to engage with clichés and fantasies, allowing them to unfold on stage and letting the audience confront them. The only rule here is to challenge our colonial and sexist unconscious biases, projected onto bodies that are too often made invisible. The audience’s effort is tangible—they are invited either to wait patiently or to grow impatient—so that something might change. On stage, as in society”.

The performance is powered by a dynamic duo of contrasting forces. One, frail and immobilized, trapped in a floor that is never quite white enough, is both manipulated and in control. The other, free and powerful, filled with mischief, keeps her gaze fixed on us, growing larger and embodying the divine spirit of (re)construction.
 
Together, through the tense images they create and the tragic stories they recite, they slowly unravel the complex narrative of Black women. How do you exist and care for yourself when, for so long, Black women have been tasked with caring for the world? Serving, raising other people’s children, tending to the elderly, cleaning, styling, washing, assisting, protecting, feeding. Surviving.

The cold, sharp white space seems to sweat, as tending to it becomes a Sisyphean task. Through hypnotic contemplation and repeated, almost pedagogical acts, the performance seeks to reformat minds yearning to free themselves from an oppressive, blinding system. And all of this is delivered with humor and mischief, like oil that seeps deep into the skin, allowing difficult questions to penetrate the deepest layers.

*Scenes of nudity
 
Credits
Whitewashing
by Rébecca Chaillon and Aurore Déon

Concept and text: Rébecca Chaillon and Aurore Déon 
Translation/Subtitling: Lisa Wegener
General Stage Management and Technical Operations: Suzanne Péchenart 
Production / Developement: Mélanie Charreton and Oursa Minor / Elise Bernard and Amandine Loriol
Production: Compagnie Dans le Ventre

On stage: Rébecca Chaillon, Aurore Déon  
 
The Dans le ventre Company is supported by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles Hauts de France – French Ministry of Culture.