I got raped
She got raped
We got raped

Rape seems to be the ultimate act of violence of a society where sexism and machismo are still the daily reality. After visiting Brazil early 2016, right after the gang-rape of the 16-year old girl in Rio, the Dutch artist Emma Berentsen felt a strong urge among girls and women in Brazil to protest, take back the streets and question the violence against women in their country again. Back in Europe the newspapers were making headlines with ‘rape culture in Brazil’ and both Dutch and English news channels were showing items about it. Emma got more intrigued by what just had happened and the questions of what is (a) rape culture? And how does Brazil differ from for example The Netherlands or Europe in this? Emma decided to come back to Brazil to research and work on a new performative piece dealing with the question ‘What is rape culture for you?’ She found herself struggling with being the outsider from The Netherlands, being a white, well-educated woman from Europe trying to understand both her own perspectives on rape culture and questioning women she interviewed what rape culture for them meant. The performance ‘questioning rape-culture’ starts of with the news item from the BBC that Emma first saw back in Europe after her initial trip and after a voice over where Emma explains her research and her struggles during the rest of the performance two Brazilian actresses read for an hour long texts that are based on the interviews Emma held with Brazilian women from different social and professional backgrounds both questioning rape culture and also sharing stories of rape and harassment.

Between October and December 2016 Dutch artist Emma Berentsen resided in Sao Paulo, Brazil and interviewed 13 Brazilian women from different social and professional backgrounds about their opinions/thoughts and stories around rape culture. The research was presented during a reading performance on 12.12.2016 at Marieta.

The 8th of April 2017 Questioning Rape Culture was be back at Marieta in Sao Paulo, as part of a bigger event dealing with rape culture curated by Emma.