French street artist pays tribute to victim in mass rape trial

A street artist has covered walls in the northern French city of Lille with portraits of Gisele Pelicot, famous since her ex-husband went on trial for enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her.

The 71-year-old woman has become a feminist icon in France since the trial of Dominique Pelicot and dozens others opened last month in the southern French city of Avignon.

Dominique Pelicot, also 71, is in the dock with 50 other men aged between 26 and 74, many of whom have denied the accusations of raping his then wife Gisele.

The case has sparked horror, protests and a debate about male violence in French society.

Gisele Pelicot has attended most of the proceedings, usually wearing round sunglasses and her hair in a trademark bob.

That look is instantly recognisable in the portraits that the collage artist who goes by the name “LaDame Quicolle” (The Lady that Sticks”) has posted across Lille.

The art is part of a series of portraits by the 38-year-old artist started in 2021 and depicting women who have become victims of rape, child prostitution and domestic violence.

Gisele Pelicot’s portraits, almost lifesize, are accompanied by the inscription “Portrait 22, Gisele P., guardians of the street. How to strengthen the position of women”.

LaDame Quicolle told AFP that the point of the pictures is to “break the silence” and “fill the No Girl’s Land, these places where not many woman go at night”.

She said that Gisele Pelicot — whom she has not met —  “opened her story up to the public, through interviews and statements” and thus allowed her, the artist, “to understand her, to know her, to immerse myself in her as a subject”.

LaDame Quicolle is not the first artist to work with Gisele Pelicot’s image.

Aline Dessine, a Belgian graphic artist with 2.5 million TikTok followers, used it for a poster launching a demonstration in support of rape victims.

Maca, another artist, produced a fresco of Gisele Pelicot in the Parisian suburb of Gentilly, which included a message calling for “shame to switch sides”.

And in Avignon, site of the trial, a collective called “The Avignon Amazons” created a collage using Gisele Pelicot’s remark in trial: “Since arriving in this courtroom I have felt humiliated.”

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