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Vaginas Untold: The Art Project that Doesn't Beat About the Bush

09/03/2020
Marketing & PR
Amsterdam, Netherlands
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On International Womens' Day Cloudfactory creative partners and co-owners tell 33 women’s stories through portraits of their vaginas that go beyond the restraints of porn and shame
This International Women’s Day, creative partners and co-owners of Dutch creative agency Cloudfactory, Sandrine Le Goff and Jessica Kersten unveiled the culmination of a five-year art project designed to unlock difficult conversations and modern-day taboos. 
 
The project - Vaginas Untold - brings to life the stories of 33 women through dedicated poetry and artistic representation - with each woman’s vagina the artwork’s canvas.
 
Released as a limited edition book, each work depicts an out-of-this world retelling of each women’s story; from a gold-plated vagina viewed through a transparent surf board, to a feminist rapunzel reclaiming body hair and a woman rowing through blood. 

 
The concept for each work was prefaced by an in-depth and intimate interview and the process of being naked, both literally and physically, allows Vaginas Untold to unlock difficult conversations about ageing, menopause, abuse, birth, female pleasure, and self-acceptance. 
 
The subjects are not models, but rather friends, associates and even strangers, all who volunteered for this intimate portrayal, each bravely baring their stories and bodies. While at first confronting, the incredible craft and intimate portrayal draws you in - whilst also provoking you to interrogate your response at the same time. 
 

On International Women's Day 2020 the artists announce a global call to women all over the world to uncover and discuss contemporary taboos associated with the female body. The aim is to open a dialogue by unlocking difficult conversations - and also a prompt to simply talk more with each other.  The Vaginas Untold project is more than an art exhibit and a book - it's a global call to make women's experiences heard whilst challenging modern day taboos. The artists and wider team ask women to share their experiences anonymously on the website and join the project which will include roundtable discussions, a report, a podcast, more artwork - and of course, the opening up of even more, difficult yet pertinent conversations all to challenge modern day taboos and drive greater connection, understanding and acceptance. 

 
Sandrine Le Goff says: “The vagina is so often stuck in a place between porn and shame, but there is so much more to show and tell. Through this project we unlocked many secrets and stories, and we have so much more work to do; to continue creating safe spaces for women to bare all - literally and metaphorically. We want to show women everywhere that the source of their strength often comes from a place of vulnerability.”
 
Jessica Kersten says: “Why don’t we talk about sex, birth, pleasure, menopause or abuse more? As women, we keep our most difficult experiences to ourselves when, so often, they are ones all of us face. Vaginas Untold empowered women who bravely shared their bodies and experiences with us - but through the book we hope that empowerment spreads, provoking further open conversations about stories too often untold.”

 
Vaginas Untold is a personal project for both Sandrine and Jessica who began this journey as part of their exploration into their own notions of femininity and feminism. The goal now is to take this project to different cultures and countries and make it a truly inclusive representation of women’s bodies and experiences. 
 
Cloudfactory is a female-led creative agency in Amsterdam; with female-led creativity at its heart. The project launched in Amsterdam on International Women’s Day. The book is a document about what it means to be a woman today, intended as a gift from one woman to another. By women, for women.  
 
Kersten closes: “If you dare to have your vagina photographed in a beautiful way - you can do anything.”


Credits
Work from The Humblebrag
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