Unstoppable
100 x 140 cm
Resin, oil and 24 ct. gold on wood panel
2022
 
It all began because of unreliable public transportation. Inconsistent scheduling due to protests brought Anne-France Dautheville, born in Paris in 1944, to do something unheard of, something downright scandalous. In 1968, Anne-France Dautheville bought herself a Honda moped. She was a sensation in the 60’s, riding her moped to her job as a journalist. At that time, motorbikes were reserved for hooligans. But for Anne-France, it was love at first ride. Her journalism job was soon thereafter too staid for the biker, who enlisted as the first and only woman on a motorcycle rally from Paris to Iran. Financing the rally herself, she finished as one of 11 from the 100 bikers with whom she had started. Once there, she continued her journey as one of just 5 bikes on to Afghanistan and Pakistan before returning to Paris. Upon arriving home, she discovered that the press had reported her as being a nymphomaniac lesbian who had let herself be driven as a passenger on the supply truck. Enraged, she decided to ride around the world by herself, both financing and documenting her voyage through freelance magazine articles along the way. In 1973, she became the first woman to ride across the world on a motorcycle, proving that dreams know no boundaries. She proved that a woman can ride around the world alone, but most of all, she proved that she is unstoppable.
 
This piece is based on a photo from her journey. She loved the time spent in pre-war Afghanistan the most, and I love this image because it shows how education — especially for girls and young women around the world — opens our perspective. How inexplicably connected knowledge is to the tree of life, represented by the ginkgo leaf.  
 
Created for the exhibition "FEMMOBILITY -- What do dreams know of boundaries? Dynamic woman: groundbreaking past, present and future." in cooperation with Wiener Linien (Vienna Public Transportation) 2022. 
 
Finalist "It's Art Call 2022" The Cult House Art Collective, London
Long-listed "Women United Art Prize 2022"