On the occasion of Art Rotterdam and the NN Award 2022, Thierry Oussou presents “Equilibrium Wind” which consists of a flag, a video, several installations and paintings.
“Equilibrium Wind” is the on-going project developed by Oussou in recent years, addressing the cotton plantations located in the district of Panouignan in Benin and the significant impact they have on the country's economic growth.
For this series, Oussou has created a multi-level investigation which starts from a purely empirical point of view: after observing the routines and duties of the cotton workers, the artist began to cultivate cotton himself, gaining firsthand experience of the exhausting and necessary labour that the Beninese farmers face every day.
He later translated the knowledge and the material collected during this experiment into a series of installations and paintings that aim to give visibility to the workers, while raising awareness on the different stages of productions.
From the cotton plantations to the comfort of our homes, from the raw material to the soft clothes that we wear every day, Oussou re-connects the dots of cotton manufacturing, pointing out the sequence of actions that we, as consumers, often forget about.
This flag represents all the people working in the shadows. It is a symbol for the farmers that work hard and are not seen in our society.