This video was recorded by a friend of mine - Vanessa Boas-Moser - for a women’s forum, where she shares her recent experiences of motherhood. She describes how her hopes and plans fell apart, how her suffering and needs were stigmatized during pregnancy and childbirth, and how, since then, she has had to fight literally for survival, lacking sleep, intellectual or emotional nourishment, and professional fulfillment.

 

I edited and presented the video as an art piece at the exhibition “Visual Narratives” of the female art collective artISIa in November 2024 in Berlin. This art installation should bring attention to the way the world stops feeling full of possibilities once a woman becomes a mother. Even today, we still live in a society shaped by gender inequality.

 

Many new mothers feel this way. Many women would find empowerment in seeing their experiences reflected, and many men might open their eyes to this reality.