Confidence. That was my first thought when seeing Maëva Weissen’s work. I don’t mean the confidence that is often associated with entitlement, wealth or delusion – I mean the confidence that is present when somebody feels certain about their core values. The grounded, protective, vital confidence that only emerges when there is a foundation of deep care – deep appreciation – deep community. Maëva comes from a working-class suburb in Switzerland, and her art (though being multifaceted and wide ranging) always feels rooted in this locus; drawing both from the aesthetics of her multicultural neighbourhood and from traditional Swiss craft. Maëva describes her practice as Polyphonic – acting in concert – speaking with others not for others. One can see this almost immediately with her work, she is never alone and collaborates intensely.
Maëva also goes by Vandale13. ‘13’ comes both from her neighbourhood’s post code 1213 and from 1312 i.e. ACAB (!) – she proudly calls herself “a vandal, in the sense that I want to vandalize the bourgeoisie, the dominant norms, the established system”.
Before I get into her latest project, I present to you my very intellectual and well thought out response to Maëva’s fashion and artwork: alert! baddies! baddies everywhere! If I interrogated that complex statement further, I would say that she gives women space to be, be loudly, be joyously, be absolutely and irrevocably secure. Or in Maëva’s own words, she’s “claiming a visibility we’re not always afforded, whether in our neighbourhoods or in society at large”. This statement is made to refer to many things, to womanhood, to racial plurality, and to the working class. To be a true baddie is to embody the knowledge that you deserve to take up space. It is in actuality, quite a radical act.
Political consciousness is embedded in Maëva’s art, she valorises the working class – gorgeous, sumptuous, colourful, delicious visuals portray the people she is in community with. Her textiles are dramatic, bold, and textured – turning recycled materials, particularly football jerseys, into regalia.
The UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 hosted by Switzerland prompted her latest project Le Treize Est Magique a truly polyphonic celebration about women’s football. Hosted at the Tattes football stadium – a mainstay for the community in Onex – the match included a classical music concert, an Afro-Columbian Parade, a half-time runway show (clothes à la Maëva) and DJ sets. Additionally, Maëva created artwork inspired by football tifos in collaboration with five public school classes and she, alongside videographer Jade Arrighi, created a short film documenting the experience of Le Treize Est Magique which you can watch here. Le Treize Est Magique was a spectacular creative response to the dominant narratives around football, bringing energy, passion, community and expression to a space that is frequently ignored or not afforded the same energy and cult that men’s football does.
Women’s work is deeply underrepresented and almost always undervalued, in fact a woman’s just being is rather gouache don’t you think? The same is felt in the sports arena, where women’s bodies are highly policed, particularly those of BIPoC, trans and gender nonconforming people. Football is equal measures of skill and display, being in fact a stage for top tier performances of pain, men doubled over, crying on the ground at the slightest hint of contact from an opponent – or displaying hyper-masculine performances of bravado.
Women while being credited as overly emotional, are simultaneously barred from expressing anger, ego or pride, lest she be stoned (and not in the fun way). Maëva instead embraces the theatricality of football by literally creating a parade. She entirely divorces her work from the notion of womanhood as an act of quietude and silence. Maëva’s art has always been rooted in anti-racist, anti-fascist and feminist action and approach, and the underrepresented cultural plurality of Swiss neighbourhoods has fundamentally defined her work.
I believe Maëva to be the Great Subverter, able to flip expectations and power dynamics – women should be meek, withdrawn and take up no space? Maëva creates larger than life, buoyant clothes that take up space and imbue the wearer with that confidence. The working class should be invisible, submissive, pliant? Maëva creates imagery that is hyper-visible, defiant, refractory. She has been and continues to be engaged in the act of changing The Narrative.
Maëva’s polyphonic approach can be seen to ring throughout both her methodology and the multiplicity of artforms she engages with. This echoes the format of any team sport, one voice doesn’t make a choir, one player doesn’t make a football team and one fan can’t do the Mexican wave. Thank god we’re communal animals! As I said in the beginning, Maëva Weissen’s work is confident, it is a sturdy, nourished confident that can only come from a community that feeds you, and that you feed back.
*All quotations from personal communication with Maëva Weissen.
