Devyah – project context

Last year, I created two works inspired by mudras: Namaskar mudra and Hakini mudra. The second work got transformed this year, but the idea that started with these two works remained.

Initially, I wanted to create a series of works inspied by mudras, specifically those asociated with hindu godesses. As I made meditation part of my life style and daily activities, I practice some of the mudras and it felt like a way to express my gratitude and appreciation for these practices. Later, I thought I could extend the series to gestures which are asociated with femininity in diferent cultures.

I have noticed an increased talk about the divine feminine, a return to feminine energies, or the importance of mitochondria as the energy factory of the cell, which is inherited only from the mother. However, the lead people to speak on these matters are mostly men.

So, I started pondering on certain things:

• What is femininity?

I do not identify with society’s view on femininity, nor have I defined what it means for myself. I find that femininity is the quality of being a woman, and therfore it means different things for different people as identifying as a woman make you feminine, whatever that means for you.

• Is the view of culture or society valid in any way?

Most cultures I know of are currently influenced by the global colonial view of western Europe, to some extent. I do not have access or knowledge to read the original texts and it has been proven in several cases, especially with the Bible, that recent transaltions dating from the ’40s are flowed in order to manipulate the world view against  the lgbtqia+ community, in particular. There are also many cases in which the local culture in certain countries was changed by force by the colonialists who conquered them in order to further their power over the population. What is left from the original cultures is very scarce since most peoples were nomadic and didn’t have written texts, or those texts were destroyed when they existed. So we are left with a very limited perspective on most things, especially femininity.

• How does femininity relate to the female and male energies?

Though these energies are attributed to one of the oldest religions of the world still existing today in practice, I question wether those energies were separted in this binary to begin with, or is this just another modern misinterpretation. Given that ancient hindu society and culture approved of fluid or non binary people and some of their gods are actually godxs. To me this separation is arbitrary at best, or a deliberate way to manipulate people at worst. So, like most human concepts, it has no meaning unless we give it one.

Given that we live in patriarchal societies and our world view is heavily influenced by male perspective, I started to ask myself if we even know to define femininity without being influenced by it.

In my current project, “Devyah”, I’m exploring what femininity is beyond male perspective. My purpose is to open up a discussion on femininity as direct experience in order to further the reparation of womanhood damaged by millennia of not being allowed to live in accordance to our needs and resist the violence we are still facing today from a male dominated society. The project will be an exploration, rather than an answer to what femininity is, because I do not think there is only one valid perspective. I’m interested in creating a space for people to reflect on this and to open up conversations about what our direct experiences tell us about femininity beyond what we are being taught and have integrated unconsciously from society and culture. To this end, I am going to open an
online questionnaire (RO, EN, FR) in July 2025, to ask people a series of questions on the subject so I can enrich my view with their direct experiences.

The title of the project refers to the Hindu goddesses who exist in many forms, as well as my spiritual practice which led me to value direct, conscious experiences over learned
ones.

With this project, I want to investigate what would feminity look like through women’s eyes, untainted by the male gaze if possible. The perspective that all versions of women we know were imagined by men: mother, wife, caregiver, witch, whore, business woman, dominatrix, feminist, conservative, trad wife, rebellious woman. Even if lately, women tried to reimagine those visions in their own ways, I’m interested in discovering a view not influenced in any way by the male perspective if that would even be possible.

The purpose of this is to further the discussion on what femininity is outside the male perpective which can be found in all role models women have today, so that next generations will have more role models which embody an authentic form of femininity and be encouraged to discover their own instead of trying to fit into someone else’s perspective.