Olympe de Gouges : Liberté, égalité, féminité

Whether famous or anonymous, stars or prisoners, models or sex workers, women have always been at the center of Bettina Rheims' photographic work since her debut in 1978. Both subversive and glamorous, trashy and sophisticated, her photographs mark and bear witness to the upheavals of the era, which this leading photographer both anticipated and accompanied.

Between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the figure of the witch emerges as a symbol of rebellion against the patriarchal order. This ruthless hunt, carried out by the civil and religious authorities, particularly targets healers and anyone defying established norms. In two centuries, nearly 100,000 people perish at the stake, a massacre that resonates in modern feminist struggles.