robin faymonville

Why a protest of silence ?

Silence is rare. A diminishing resource.

Our modern societies are built on speed and noise. Beyond our already noisy environments, there is a collective social pressure to speak, to express ourselves on social media, to listen to music—whether individually, through our earbuds, or collectively, as public spaces become increasingly filled with music played on street speakers.

In this era of over-communication, in a world saturated with images and noise, there is an urgent need to reflect on silence and emptiness. Silence is not passive—it is, above all, an active form of communication, a deliberate refusal to engage in constant discourse.

Silence lies at the heart of every religion—a means of connecting with the sacred. While silence itself is not inherently religious, allowing space for it is a practice that can bring us closer to the invisible.

I do not want to sell anything. I am not offering an exotic performance. I simply want to listen to the world—carefully, patiently, and collectively.

Silent walking has become a trend on TikTok. But, as with many personal development movements, societal issues are reduced to individual concerns. People are exhausted, overwhelmed — too many distractions, too much of everything. This is a fact.

In the past, religions played a role in regulating our minds. Peace and calm were the rewards of prayer.

I call for a secular form of prayer. A prayer without God.

But I do not want to present this insight too directly. Above all, we must remain organized as a community—an emerging community.

This is why I create protest signs: to keep it political without being tied to a specific political stance. That is the core ambiguity of this proposition. It must say something without being reduced to a single explicit demand.

One risk is that it may be misinterpreted as an attempt to equate all causes, as if one demand were the same as another. Another danger I must be mindful of is irony. This is not an ironic action.

The point is not to "perform" silence—it is to truly engage with one another, as demonstrations do. But in this case, the community would be formed around one simple, yet powerful foundation: silence.