2014 EDITION — BANFORA

06/10/2014 – 06/11/2014

The Hors Pistes project took shape as we lived it in Ouagadougou in 2013. The craftsmen’s studios were the labs upon which Hors Pistes was built. The materials turned into objects and our spontaneous enterprise became a lifelong adventure.

For this second edition in Banfora, we wanted to confirm the intuition that had carried us so far by providing the designers and craftsmen a new territory favourable to encounters, experimentations and discoveries. We chose two different traditional craftsmanships, in order to create a striking contrast and bring to light the potential of those handicrafts to exist in multiple forms: the Tuareg jewellery and the palm weaving technique. While Akama works with silver and creates prestige objects, the weavers from the association Benkadi Gouafo produce palm weaved baskets and mats to be used in everyday life.

The residence was held under the mango trees, in an open air «studio», recreated every morning without any physical borders. Newcomers were welcomed every morning: children, neighbours, hens, goats... We worked by following the shade, moving all day long. Every now and then we came home when the rain chased us away. The production processes were conceived without electricity; the objects took shape with the rhythm of the tools held by the hand and with the sound of the hammer on the anvil.

During this month of collaboration, designers and craftsmen have jostled their working habits and developed new projects sometimes with only one common language: the object produced together.

TEAM

PROJECTS

WITH THE SUPPORT OF