Sole Crushing
| Sole Crushing | |
|---|---|
| Artist | Meriem Bennani |
| Year | 2024 |
| Medium | Mechanical installation |
| Location |
|
Sole Crushing is a 2024 mechanical installation by Meriem Bennani, commissioned by Milan's Fondazione Prada. It debuted as part of Prada and Bennani's exhibition, For My Best Family, and consists of more than 190 flip-flops synchronised to a 45-minute backing track by Moroccan musician Reba Senhaji (as Cheb Runner) and Bennani. In 2025, a revival edition opened at the Lafayette Anticipations facility in Paris. Both incarnations of the installation were positively reviewed.
Overview
Operated by a "complex" pneumatic system,[1][2] Sole Crushing comprises no fewer than 190 motorised flip-flops laid out across six platforms,[1][2][3] which "slap against panels, creating a riotous, polyphonic composition and choreography....Most of them face a small, central podium bearing a single pair of flip-flops whose slapping movements are occasionally isolated, creating a sense of conversation between an individual and a crowd."[3] During its original tenure at Milan's Fondazione Prada, it was the companion piece to For Aicha, a computer-animated feature Meriem Bennani conceived as part of her exhibition, For My Best Family. Sole's sound played during the "points of tension" in Aicha's plot: "As the two main characters reach their resolution, so does the composition of the footwear when they finish their symphony."[4]
Development
Over a two-year period, Meriem Bennani created Sole Crushing as part of For My Best Family, a 2024–25 art exhibition funded and hosted by the Fondazione Prada.[5] Family also featured For Aicha, a computer-animated film whose extended edit was later released in film festivals as Bouchra.[6]
An Internet meme involving angry mothers was Bennani's initial inspiration for Sole Crushing; another came in the form of online videos of fans at Casablanca football matches.[7] Reda Senhaji, a musician working under the stage name Cheb Runner, wrote the 45-minute backing track along with Bennani;[3][8] both were natives of Morocco.[9][10] Runner's score paid homage to various North African musical traditions, such as regadda (foot-stamping), dakka a rech (hand-cymbal music),[3] and dakka marrakchia (a style involving "movement and percussion").[2]
Themes
Alongside For Aicha, Sole Crushing uses breathing as a metaphorical motif:[1] Sole Crushing uses pneumatic pumps,[1] while Aicha's protagonist Bouchra takes shots of Ventolin to cope with her asthma symptoms.[1][2] A writer for Italy's designboom noted the mutual relationships present in both components: Bouchra depends on Aicha, while the shoes depend on the pneumatic system that operates them.[4] The French edition of Vogue, and Orit Gat of American art site e-flux, noted the Sole/Soul pun in the installation's title upon its 2025 Paris debut.[7][11] Gat acknowledged that although the goal of the shoes' hypothetical wearers to come together "might be difficult, it is also a form of resistance to the depredations of daily life."[11] Jace Clayton of 4Columns saw the flip-flops as a metaphor for the Global South.[12]
Tenure
Sole Crushing and its parent exhibition, For My Best Family, received their earliest mention in a late January 2024 article on Italian art site RED•EYE.[13] The names of Family's two components were revealed in Mexico's Noir Magazine by late July,[14] and Italy's Artribune the following month.[15] Following a preview on 30 October,[16][17] the Fondazione Prada held the exhibition between 31 October 2024 and 24 February 2025.[15][lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]
In September 2025, Lafayette Anticipations in Paris announced they would host a revival edition of Sole Crushing[20] at the same time Bouchra began its festival run.[21] Featuring a new score by Runner, this iteration became Bennani's solo debut at Lafayette upon its 22 October launch, and is slated to run there until 8 February 2026.[22]
Reception
Sole Crushing was positively reveiwed during both its Prada and Paris tenures. Laura McLean-Ferris of Italian art magazine Mousse wrote, "[This installation] is a moving, thrilling piece of work, but gains even more nuance from its pairing with For Aicha."[3] Near the end of Family's run, Clayton called the experience "entrancing" and "thrilling visceral", adding that its "immersive beat clatter sounds very, very good, and will elicit a range of responses: joy, exuberance, enervation, claustrophobia, catharsis, reverie, delirium, trance..."[12] Reviewers in Milan compared its mechanisms to the brooms in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Disney's Fantasia.[12][23] Victoria Pokovba of Whitewall called its Paris incarnation "a singular, immersive experience, one that merges playfulness and politics in a rhythm of shared energy."[22] Louise Benson of Ocula said, "Set within the full height of the OMA-designed [Lafayette] space, it is brilliantly absurdist, tongue-in-cheek, and, of course, extremely loud."[24]
Notes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Baranello, Alessia (2024-11-07). "Il cinema d'animazione è una storia di resistenza politica". Lampoon Magazine (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-11-17.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Manzotti, Giovanna (2025-02-05). "Must-See: Meriem Bennani's Flip-Flop Orchestra". Frieze. Archived from the original on 8 July 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-18. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 McLean-Ferris, Laura (2024-12-02). "Reviews: Meriem Bennani, 'For My Best Family' at Fondazione Prada, Milan". Mousse Magazine. Archived from the original on 13 January 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-17. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 4.0 4.1 burgos, matthew (2024-10-30). "mechanized flip-flops beat their 'drums' in meriem bennani's exhibition at fondazione prada". designboom. DAAily platforms AG. Retrieved 2025-11-18.
- ↑ "Exhibitions: Meriem Bennani 'For My Best Family' at Fondazione Prada, Milan". Mousse Magazine. 2024-11-18. Archived from the original on 2 December 2024. Retrieved 2025-11-17. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Wilk, Elvia (2025-10-01). "Scripting Intimacy: Meriem Bennani and the Art of Animating Reality". Hyundai Artlab. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Mang, Lolita (2025-10-21). "À Paris, cette exposition gratuite va vous donner envie… de danser !". Vogue France (in French). Retrieved 2025-11-17.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
- ↑ Luquet-Gad, Ingrid (2025-10-20). "Numéro Art: L'artiste Meriem Bennani dirige un orchestre de sandales à Lafayette Anticipations". Numéro (in French). Retrieved 2025-11-17.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
- ↑ Kamegawa, Annalise June; Kirszenbaum, Martha (2025-01-03). "Reportage: Cheb Runner, composer of Meriem Bennani's Sole Crushing". Novembre. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ↑ Kaabi, Amina (2025-10-16). "Culture: Meriem Bennani Has a Way with Reality". GQ Middle East. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Gat, Orit (2025-10-31). "Criticism: Paris roundup". e-flux. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Clayton, Jace (2025-01-24). "Visual Art — Meriem Bennani: A show at the Fondazione Prada in Milan renders visceral the pleasures of pure percussion". 4Columns. Archived from the original on 24 June 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-18. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Cappelletti, Gloria Maria (2024-01-26). "2024 at Fondazione Prada: Your Complete Guide to This Year's Highlights — Meriem Bennani's Visionary Art: A Fusion of Animation and Installation at Fondazione Prada Milan". RED•EYE Metazine. Milan. Archived from the original on 6 August 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-17. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Escobar, Isamar (2024-07-30). "Arte y Cultura: Fondazione Prada presenta exposición de Meriem Bennani 'For My Best Family'". NOIR. (in Spanish). The Fashion Group. Archived from the original on 6 September 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-17. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) - ↑ 15.0 15.1 Giaume, Giulia (2024-08-07). "Realismo magico, umorismo e animali antropomorfi. Meriem Bennani sarà in mostra da Fondazione Prada a Milano". Artribune (in Italian). Archived from the original on 14 September 2024. Retrieved 2025-11-17. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) - ↑ Kamegawa, Annalise (2024-11-03). "Feature · For My Best Family, Meriem Bennani at Fondazione Prada". NR. WhiteCirc Ltd. Archived from the original on 15 July 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-17. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Fondazione Prada (2024-08-31). "Mostre in autunno 2024 | 'For My Best Family', Meriem Bennani alla Fondazione Prada, Milano". ATP DIARY (in Italian). Archived from the original on 16 June 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-17. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)- Translated from: "FONDAZIONE PRADA PRESENTS 'FOR MY BEST FAMILY', A NEW PROJECT BY MERIEM BENNANI, IN MILAN FROM 31 OCTOBER 2024 TO 24 FEBRUARY 2025" (PDF) (Press release). Fondazione Prada. 2024-07-29. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ↑ "Milano: For My Best Family (Meriem Bennani)". Fondazione Prada (in Italian). 2024-10-31. Archived from the original on 9 October 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-17. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)- English translation: Fondazione Prada (2024-11-10). "Meriem Bennani at Fondazione Prada with the project 'For my best family'". Finestre sull'Arte. Archived from the original on 2025-11-10. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ↑ "For My Best Family (Art)". hube. 2024-10-31. Archived from the original on 15 August 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-17. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Socha, Miles (2025-09-08). "For Art's Sake". Women's Wear Daily. p. 41. Retrieved 2025-11-17 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ Lang, Jamie (2025-09-05). "'Spit and Duct Tape and Dreams': How a Small Global Team Built the Queer CG Feature 'Bouchra,' Premiering in Toronto". Cartoon Brew. Archived from the original on 8 September 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-17. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 22.0 22.1 Pokovba, Victoria (2025-10-29). "Best Shows in Paris: Jeffrey Gibson and More". Whitewall. Sky Art Media Inc. Retrieved 2025-11-18.
- ↑ Muraben, Billie (2024-11-28). "Art Review: Breathing to Life: Meriem Bennani at Fondazione Prada". Canvas Online. Archived from the original on 6 August 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-18. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Benson, Louise (2025-10-22). "Spotlight: The Top 8 Shows to See in Paris Through the Winter — Meriem Bennani, Sole Crushing". Ocula Magazine. Retrieved 2025-11-18.
Bibliography
- Bennani, Meriem; Barki, Orian (2024). Mainetti, Mario; Gravina, Niccolò, eds. For My Best Family: For Aicha / Sole Crushing (in English and Italian). Milan: Fondazione Prada. ISBN 978-88-87029-92-5.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on
Further reading
- Nouri, Selma (2024-12-19). "Art & Photography: Nothing is silly to Meriem Bennani". Dazed MENA. Archived from the original on 5 August 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-18. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - Saleh, Raïs (2025-10-24). "Art & Photography: Meriem Bennani's flip-flop orchestra during Art Basel Paris". Dazed MENA. Retrieved 2025-11-18.
External links
- Official website at Lafayette Anticipations
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