Three works by Evelyne Axell are featured in this exhibition on feminist humour in the 1960s and 1970s.
From 18 October 2025 to 8 March 2026.
In the midst of the second wave of feminism, artists used humour as an incisive artistic tool. Far from the clichés that confined them to seriousness or propriety, they seized upon laughter as a critical, free and often provocative weapon. La Marrade brings together nearly 200 works, objects and archives from these political and jubilant gestures.
The exhibition does not aim to retrace the history of female humour, but rather to focus on a specific period, that of the second wave of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s. Feminists have often been caricatured as lacking a sense of humour and incapable of laughter. This exhibition, on the contrary, seeks to restore the predominant role of humour and fantasy in works that, in some cases, address the most serious issues related to the status of women.
The exhibition presents a diverse group of artists who used humour as a weapon of activism. Some parodied the works of men, others sought to subvert the feminine ideal, while still others were not afraid of ridicule. Around a hundred works from French, Belgian and Dutch public and private collections will be presented alongside archival documents of militant actions, comic books and children’s literature, audiovisual archives of sketches and concerts, testifying to the existence of feminist laughter, far from the hackneyed clichés of militancy perceived as a joyless and puritanical commitment.
Curator: Camille Paulhan, scenography: Julia Dessirier, graphic design: Nicolas Turki Duchesnay, photo: Cathy Christiaen / City of Dunkirk.
LAAC, LIEU D’ART ET ACTION CONTEMPORAINE
Sculpture garden
302 avenue des bordées
F-59140 Dunkirk
www.musees-dunkerque.eu
