With Sole crushing, the artist Meriem Bennani proposes an installation that explores the notion of being together and the individual’s place in the community. Unfolding across the full height of the Fondation, the work stages some 200 flip-flops that are animated by a pneumatic system, performing a score composed in collaboration with the musician Reda Senhaji (aka Cheb Runner).
These flip-flops embody a multitude of characters and evoke collective moments where bodies are united by the rhythms of footsteps, songs, or political uprisings — whether at a protest, football stadium, or musical ceremonies. Fascinated by such contagious collective energies, the artist takes further cues from dakka marrakchia, a Moroccan ritual in which participants play music while reaching a peak of spiritual intensity.
She likewise refers to the notion of duende: a mysterious force, described by the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca in the 1930s, that seizes the bodies of flamenco dancers, with a concomitant hold on their spectators. The work’s title plays o the expression “soul-crushing” with the materiality of the sandals’ soles, which both keep time and rhythmically sync up with what can become an overwhelming sonic power. First exhibited at the Fondazione Prada in Milan in 2024–25, Sole crushing has been completely readapted for Lafayette Anticipations with new instruments and a new musical composition. Meriem Bennani invites visitors to wander through the space, absorbing an experience of collective joy or uprising.
Sole crushing is composed of 201 flip-flops, each connected to a pneumatic system by two tubes: one that receives air and sets the sandal in motion, the other of which completes the circuit and halts the movement. This air breathes life into the work, like a living organism or a vast wind instrument. The sandals’ claps are programmed and sequenced following an original musical score, composed with an electric keyboard connected to a computer. Based on their accessories, supports (wood, metal, plexiglass, or velvet), and the size of their sound boxes, each shoe emits a particular sound.
Drawing on the repertoire of traditional North African music as well as that of symphony orchestras, Meriem Bennani takes inspiration from varied types of percussion such as drums, tambourines, and wood-blocks — in this case imagining a new tubular instrument that simultaneously evokes an organ, a marimba, and a carillon.
The artist chose the sandal for its malleability and ubiquity alike. Already present some 4,000 years ago in ancient Egypt and still worn around the world, here it steps into an entirely new dimension.
Press release from Lafayette Anticipations
Image: Meriem Bennani. Sole crushing. 2025. Installation view at Lafayette Anticipations, 2025. Photography by Aurelien Mole
