La Fleur – Selbsternannte Mannequins

In the organizer's words:

"The shoes that talk, the shoes that have a passport, the shoes that travel first class, the shoes say 'hello' to you," sings the Ivorian singer and stylist Abou Nidal in 2007 in a homage to elegant and extravagant clothing that has the potential to accompany the class leap, overcome border controls and fly over socially enforced barriers.

However, La Fleur is not only concerned with the subversive use of clothing and strategies of self-dramatization, but also with the industrial production of pagne fabrics, which have become a trend on the catwalks of the fashion world with their bright African prints over the last 15 years or so. To this end, La Fleur is researching the history of the Robert Gonfreville textile factory in Bouaké in the Ivory Coast, which had a major socio-economic impact on the region during its existence from 1921 to 1980 and continues to produce in its successor factory Tex-Ci to this day. Local craftsmanship meets modern design, colonial trade relations meet industrial culture and urban development in a performative and cinematic-documentary installation. There will also be a bit of fashion.