Exhibition

Meriem Bennani | Sole crushing

For her solo exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations, Meriem Bennani is presenting a monumental orchestra which will transform the Fondation into a vast sound box. Spread throughout the floors of the building, the sound installation Sole Crushing brings together over two hundred flip-flops which play a musical composition mixing symphony and riot. The footwear comes to life, striking different surfaces with its soles and creating an unusual array of percussive sounds. Meriem Bennani explores ways of being together and the individual’s place within the community. Whether as a chorus, or as soloists, in unison or in response to each other, these flip-flops evoke the individuals that make up a moving crowd, whether in a protest, a stadium, or a dakka marrakchia, a traditional Morrocan musical ceremony. The simple, banal clapping of a flip-flop unites the group in a single pulse—that of a force that transcends the individual. For this reinterpretation of the work originally presented in the exhibition “For My Best Family” at Fondazione Prada in 2024–25, the artist has invited Reda Senhaji (Cheb Runner) to compose a new soundtrack and designed a site-specific installation for the Lafayette Anticipations spaces.

In her sculptures, installations and videos, she explores the potential of storytelling while amplifying reality through a strategy of magical realism and humour.

Her works have been exhibited at numerous institutions, including the Fondazione Prada in Milan, the Whitney Museum and the High Line in New York, and Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham. She also participated in the most recent Toronto International Film Festival with her feature-length animated film Bouchra.

Meriem Bennani earned her BFA from Cooper Union in New York, and her MFA at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.Recent solo presentations include Fondazione Prada, Milan (2024-25), Fondation Kamel Lazaar, Tunis (2023); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2022); The High Line, New York (2022); The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago (2022); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (2022); Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden (2021); François Ghebaly, Los Angeles (2021); Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin (2020); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2019); and MoMA PS1, New York (2016). Bennani’s work was featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, the 2018 Biennale of Moving Images, and the 2016 Shanghai Biennale.

Bennani’s work is held in the collections of the Lafayette Anticipations, The Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Kadist Foundation, Paris; and Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris.

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