Selbsternannte Mannequins (Self-Styled Mannequins)
Auf den Routen der Textilproduktion (On the Routes of Textile Production)
Performance Social/Urban Movements Theatre & Performance
“The shoes that talk, the shoes that own a passport, the shoes that travel first class, those shoes bid you ‘Hello’”, Ivorian singer and styler Abou Nidal sings in a 2007 homage to elegant and extravagant clothing that carries the potential to accompany the class jump, to overcome border controls, and to fly over socially imposed barriers.
Yet La Fleur does not only aim at the subversive application of garments and strategies of self-presentation but also at the industrial production of pagne fabrics which have become a trend on the fashion world’s global catwalks for roughly the last 15 years. La Fleur conducts research on the history of the Robert Gonfreville textile mill in Bouaké on the Ivory Coast which wielded a large socioeconomic impact on the region during its existence from 1921 until 1980 and wherein the successor Tex-Ci still keeps producing. In a performative und filmic-documentary installation, local craft encounters modern design, colonial trade relations meet industry culture and urban development. There will also be a bit of fashion.
