Saturday 19 October
To kick off the festival, we're opening up the Embobineuse's mechanical garden for a little get-together and readings!

Reading by Janis Sahraoui: her life story co-written with Tal Madesta (Harper Collins, May 2024)

Years before she revealed her trans-identity, Janis was a little boy in the eyes of everyone. The other children bully her, calling her ‘the tomboy’, and she is a victim of domestic violence when her mother dies. To survive, there's only one solution: create a mask for herself. Janis shared her musical compositions on Myspace and played the role of Sliimy, a character as sparkling as her life was dark. Her songs went viral. Soon signed to a major label, Sliimy composed her first album, Paint your face, a success that propelled the artist onto stages the world over. Despite this mask of glitter and fame, the harassment started up again, multiplied tenfold by the celebrity. Sliimy sank. Her resilience will take the form of a radical realisation: for the world to see her as the woman she has always been, she must reveal her true face and transform her body.

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Janis Sahraoui is a multidisciplinary artist and singer-songwriter. Through music, performance and poetry, she explores themes such as identity, gender and the freedom to be oneself. Her music, combining electro, pop and experimental influences, is characterised by introspective and poetic lyrics about transformation, resilience and emancipation.

Janis is in Marseille this autumn to record her forthcoming debut album for our friends at Recue + Return Records.