Testicules gesticulées, (Gesticulated testicles) mémoire written in 2020, as part of a Master 2 at EHESS in Paris in the Arts, Literatures, Language section, with the mentoring of Emanuele Coccia.

Layout: Baptiste Verrey.

Summary: Testicules gesticulées is a hybrid theoretical, artistic and activist research, based on of DIY contraceptive tool invented by the Ardecom, activists in the 80s. Invented in a context of feminist and anti-capitalist self-experimentation, named the “The balls suspensors from Toulouse” by the activists themselves, this tool enables a person with testicles to contracept themselves through the practice of a daily testicular inhibition movement. If this object is still perceived as an emasculating practice, testicules gesticulées enters into the intimacy of a patriarchal heritage around testicles, and analyzes the gender upheavals induced when testicles are “moved” from their gendered positions and privileges. By placing my own body in this laboratory, (dance and drag practices, activism) by playing between observation and active participation, the research invent a porous approach for dissident feminist imaginaries of the testicles.