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Bare-breasted 'Mariannes' confront police at Paris protest

Five bare-breasted protesters dressed as Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic confronted a phalanx of CRS riot police in Paris on Saturday, bringing an unexpected turn to a fifth weekend of “yellow-vest” protests.

The five women, who were wearing red hooded tops bearing the revolutionary symbol of Hercules, approached the line of police slowly in a V-formation and then stood silently in front of them, their faces absolutely still, for half an hour.

The women are not members of the activist group Femen, known for its bare-breasted protests, but were instead organised by the Luxembourg performance artist Deborah de Rebortis (seen centre below).

They began by first walking towards the line of riot police.

They then stood just a metre from the riot shields, as journalists massed around them.

This is not De Rebortis' first piece of naked performance art.

She mounted her first stunt in 2014, when she exposed her genitals at the Musée d'Orsay in front of Gustave Courbet's painting L'Origine du Monde, which depicts the genitals and abdomen of a naked woman.

In September, she shocked devout Catholics by disrobing in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, and then posing in a prayer position wearing nothing but a veil over her head.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20181215/bare-breasted-mariannes-confront-police-at-paris-protest