Sense of astonishment
This group of silent, motionless people does not have the attitude one ordinarily observes in a museum setting. They are rather young, sitting close together, among friends, alert. They stay there for a relatively long time. It is a real show, but an exhibition too. The scene takes place in Paris, in the Marais, at Lafayette Anticipations. Viewers are seized by a sense of astonishment in front of this extraordinary installation. It is by the Moroccan artist living in New York, Meriem Bennani (born in 1988). She titled it “Sole crushing”, a phrase that could play on the expression soul-crushing.
Very metallic jewel box
In this case, the institution—this very metallic jewel box (the building was designed by the architect superstar Rem Koolhaas)—has been transformed across two floors into a resonating chamber. And this big aluminum box is inhabited by flip-flops. Yes: nearly 300 of these plastic shoes are arranged and staged in such a way that they produce sounds. The artist orchestrated a compressed-air system that sets the sandals in motion. They strike the ground in carefully constructed rhythms that, in crescendo, produce music.
Cheb Runner
The sequence lasts 45 minutes, moving from a loud, erratic cacophony to organized sounds that form a kind of melody akin to a military march, or to an Eastern rhythm—such as the Moroccan, Berber-inflected sounds associated with Gnawa music. To make this project operational, she enlisted the help of a musician, Redha Senhaji, a.k.a. Cheb Runner, who composed the score.The musician flip-flops are installed throughout the space on a sophisticated network of wooden rods through which they are activated. Some are isolated like the stars of the concert. These are the most individualized.
She animates shoes
https://youtube.com/shorts/ibJXG8phBfs?si=N7t47P1xenJRtHe5 Meriem is known for her animated films, which tell real-life stories through animals. Here, in a kind of whimsical continuity, she animates shoes. “I was drawn to the flip-flop as an object, its flexible behavior, almost cartoonish.” The artist did not have to search long to find in the flip-flop a surge of meanings, which she lists: “We produce millions of them every year—so many that it has become an environmental issue. The object is inexpensive, associated with the Global South. You can see in it the ‘meme’ of the mother disciplining her children. It is very simple and everywhere at once. In the end, it’s an object that belongs to everyone.”
Political turn
In her daily life, Meriem scans social media in search of social facts. She is, for example, fascinated by the power of groups, by the sense of belonging one observes at concerts or political demonstrations. “I watched videos of chants in stadiums. You can’t stop these gatherings when they express themselves. In the end I represented this multitude of bodies together through flip-flops, this idea of stomping that will take a musical or political turn. Then, gradually, I assembled all these notions, which became the instrument you see here. You find in it a sensation of multitude, the noise of a riot or of a symphony.”
In search of invisible army
Ultimately, because these mobile shoes are not inhabited by the feet that should make them slap, the spectacle leaves the viewer stunned, in search of this invisible army. Meriem Bennani lets us hear the force of the group, but, involuntarily, also lets us see the communion of the astonished spectators. More broadly, at a time when the events of recent days in Iran leave us deeply pensive about the power of spontaneous collective expression… 
Through February 8. www.lafayetteanticipations.com/fr
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