Pride Parade

Since opening in 2000, creativity, sharing, diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility have been the guiding principles behind Les Abattoirs’ commitment to giving meaning to the concept of “living together.” These values also reflect the venue’s ongoing dedication to being more than just a cultural space—it is a place for everyone to experience, where each person can feel at home while their diversity and individuality are respected.

Driven by their convictions, Les Abattoirs regularly partners with the LGBTQIA+ community through both its exhibitions and cultural programming, as evidenced in particular by the creative freedom granted to the PRIDE Toulouse association during European Museum Night since 2018. In 2026, Les Abattoirs reaffirms its commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community by creating an artistic float that will parade on Saturday, June 6, during the Toulouse Pride Parade. For the fourth consecutive year, Les Abattoirs is collaborating with artist Estelle Prudent, in partnership with the Toulouse-based Afro-queer association Evidens’.

Born to a father from Guadeloupe and a mother from Martinique, Estelle Prudent studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. Embracing her identity as a lesbian and Afro-feminist, she uses photography both as a tool to denounce the discrimination and invisibility experienced by people of color and the LGBT community, and as a path to empowerment, by celebrating queer and Black aesthetics. In 2023, five of her works were added to the collections of Les Abattoirs. Drawn from the “QUEERSUPERPOWER” and “QUEERPRIDE” series, these images blend portraits of queer people with photographs of demonstrations for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. For the Abattoirs float, Estelle Prudent presents a new creation centered on celebrating LGBTQIA+ people of African descent and Afro-Caribbean heritage.

Founded in 2024 in Toulouse, Evidens’ is a Toulouse-based organization created by and for Afroqueer*** people. Its mission is to advocate for the visibility and rights of people who identify with this label, to facilitate the sharing and celebration of their diverse cultures and communities, and to honor the intersection of identities through events that reflect their experiences. Building on their collaboration with Les Abattoirs for the exhibition “Mickalene Thomas. All About Love” in 2025, Evidens’ is once again partnering with Les Abattoirs to honor Toulouse’s Afroqueer community.

Les Abattoirs would like to thank Estelle Prudent and Evidens’, as well as all the individuals, collectives, partners, and sponsors who contributed to this new, original, and collaborative artistic project in support of the LGBTQIA+ community in all its diversity.

GLOSSARY

*People of African descent: In its original usage, the term “people of African descent” refers to those descended from African populations, particularly those who were subjected to the slave trade, encompassing the Black population in Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.

**Queer: A word derived from English meaning “strange,” “bizarre,” or “misfit,” and initially used as a slur against LGBT+ people (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender). It was reclaimed and given new meaning by the LGBTQIA+ community in the context of the fight against the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s. It is now used to positively assert a divergence from binary heterosexual and cisgender norms. The term “queer” embodies a political demand for collective resistance against normative regulations and power dynamics related to gender, sexuality, and the sexualized body.

***Afroqueer: this term refers to people who are both of African descent and queer.

With the support of Pride Toulouse, The Social Hub, LID Technologies, Ici Radio TV Digital, Evidens’, and Dream Vision.