LAFLEUR & BOGAERT
Haiti BelgiumMichel Lafleur and Tom Bogaert founded the Art Generating Business Lafleur & Bogaert in 2013. They began creating art together when they met at the 3rd edition of the Atis Rezistans / Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Lafleur & Bogaert are best known for their critically acclaimed projects for documenta fifteen as part of Atis Rezistans / Ghetto Biennale, for which AR/GB received ‘the Best Exhibition of the Year 2022 Award’ by the International Association of Art Critics in Germany.
FAMASI MOBIL KONGOLÈ
Famasi Mobil Kongolè (2022) Installation view documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany.
Mobile pharmacies are the main source of medicine for many Haitians. Street vendors carry spires of curved paper covered with pills — painkillers, antibiotics, Viagra knockoffs, condoms, abortion pills and cough syrups.
The ‘Famasi Mobil Kongolè’ includes electric lights, Congo Blue filter sheets, hand painted cardboard, plastic buckets, multicolored pills, rubber bands and pairs of scissors.
Famasi Mobil Kongolè (2023)
At Studio Coppedè in Rome, Italy.
BONBON TÈ MAJIK
Bonbon Tè Majik (2022)
Installation view documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany.
For documenta fifteen Lafleur & Bogaert repurposed an abandoned construction vehicle from which they sold mud cakes made with Kassel clay. While the myth exists that people in Haiti have had to resort to eating dirt due to extreme poverty, the reality is that mud cakes, or ‘bonbon tè’, are traditionally used as a dietary supplement — typically during pregnancy, due to the mineral content of the clay.
Experimenting with different recipes, flavours, motifs, and designs, Lafleur & Bogaert offered the cakes to the public who could then eat or collect the ‘Bonbons Tè Majik.’
SUN RA RA
Sun Ra Ra (2021)
Installation view at bb15 Space for Contemporary Art in Linz, Austria.
Sun Ra Ra (2022)Installing at documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany.
On his first visit to the Ghetto Biennale in Haiti, Tom Bogaert heard something familiar in the rara marching music that was being played in the streets of Port-au-Prince. Already doing work on the interplanetary jazz legend Sun Ra’s visit to Egypt in the early 1970s, Bogaert read in the dog-eared pages of an old copy of the Lonely Planet that Sun Ra was also rumoured to have visited Haiti, perhaps ten years earlier, during his so-called ‘lost years.’
It was even said that Sun Ra might have composed his masterpiece ‘Rocket Number Nine’ in Port-au-Prince. What Bogaert heard in the streets made him believe this could be true and, even more so, he found out that ‘Rocket Number Nine’ has its roots in the traditional rara song ‘Fize Nimewo Nèf’.
Bogaert collaborated with Michel Lafleur and with the local rara band Kod Kreyòl to study and rehearse the somewhat forgotten Fize Nimewo Nèf, and a Clocktower Radio sound engineer recorded some of the early morning practice sessions that took place in the garden of the Oloffson Hotel. A while later, Kod Kreyòl performed Fize Nimewo Nèf at a now legendary concert in downtown Port-au-Prince.
Sun Ra Ra (2015)
Concert and installation view at Jean-Claude Saintilus’ Vodou temple.
REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE
Revolutions per Minute (2019)
Installation view Lakou Eugène off Grand Rue in Port-au-Prince.
For the 6th edition of the Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Michel Lafleur and Tom Bogaert made new site-specific work: ‘RPM – revolutions per minute’ a sculptural interactive tachometer built to measure the number of (counter) revolutions Haiti has known since the Slaves Revolt of 1791-1804, including the current uprising.
PRESTIGE
Prestige Labels (2013)
Installation view at Papa Da (†) Vodou Temple in Port-au-Prince.
Prestige Mural (2013)Off Grand Rue in Port-au-Prince.
2015
2017
2019
2022
Prestige is a brand of beer produced by the Heineken-owned Brasserie Nationale d’Haiti in Port-au-Prince. With 98% market share it is the best-selling beer in Haiti.
Lafleur & Bogaert invited Haitians to warp the label of Prestige. Through a series of interviews, we explored ways in which Haitian identity may be reflected and distorted by this consumer product.
Prestige was commissioned by the 3rd Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince – December 2013.