a film by Laurence Bonvin, in collaboration with Cheikh Ndiaye
Avant l’envol explores the actual state of a selection of significant modernist governmental buildings in Abidjan, the main Ivorian city. As an architectural tour as well as a tribute to the remarkable architectural achievements of the 60s till 80s and to –among others architects– Henri Chomette, a special attention is given to users and passersby, to their gestures and ways of informally appropriating the spaces for their needs. Monumentality appears here as a reminder of the ambitious and utopian vision of an era and architecture itself becomes a metaphor for power that eventually reveals a state of lastingstatus quo.
Best Swiss Camera Award at the International Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, 2016.