Masks of Anger & Reclaiming space

with Danique Waarle, Moira, Utrecht, 2026

According to Silverman masks can work as a therapeutic tool both when working as at the subject (when they are on) and when as an object (when they are off). They can speak for what we want to expose, what we want to hide, and they open the possibilities to show our "inner face" to us. (Leavy, 2020)

Using this approach as a lens, and starting from the premise that we are affected by gender-based harassment in the public sphere, I co-created and co-facilitated Masks of Anger in collaboration with Danique.

We reflected on incidents of GBV in our everyday lives and on our reactions to them, in an effort to raise awareness of those incidents.

Later, we incorporated the insights from this discussion into the mask-making process. For example, some participants created long vertical shapes to look taller, while others added spiky elements to become invisible and create distance.