PARIS
DECEMBER 10, 2025 – DECEMBER 20, 2025
Fondation H, in partnership with the Cité internationale des arts de Paris, is delighted to welcome Chloé Soafaniry Ramanankasina, winner of Prix Paritana 2025, for a three-month residency from October 5, to December 22, 2025, to develop her project Renouer les tresses de son identité [Reweaving the braids of one’s identity].
During her residency, Chloé Soafaniry Ramanankasina focuses on the practice of braiding, particularly within the Malagasy context, exploring its role in cultural transmission and the construction of identity. Renouer les tresses de son identité [Reweaving the braids of one’s identity] questions both cultural heritage and our personal relationship to it. The project’s title suggests a process of reconciliation and reconnection with a history that may at times be fragmented.
In many cultures, the act of braiding hair — one’s own or that of others — is a social ritual that binds generations together. The moment of braiding creates a space for exchange, where people converse, learn and pass on stories and skills, while the very form of the braid is often deeply codified within specific cultural traditions. This project proposes to explore these dimensions through three installations — Hériter, Transmettre et Imaginer [To Inherit, To Transmit and To Imagine] — offering a shared introspective experience. Combining drawing, photography and artificial intelligence to envision new hairstyles, Chloé Soafaniry Ramanankasina seeks to push beyond the limits of reality and propose new visual forms around hairdressing.
BIOGRAPHY OF CHLOÉ SOAFANIRY RAMANANKASINA
Born in 2000 in Tamatave, Chloé Soafaniry Ramanankasina lives and works in Lyon, France. After completing highschool, she moved to France to study design and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Prospective Design at Université des Mines and Université de Saint-Étienne. She is the initiator of two community projects for people of African descent — Palabres and KBR — both conceived as creative spaces of expression. She took part in Transmission(s), a group exhibition on the theme Design & Cultural Identities at Tati Barbès, Paris, presenting a series of drawings and digital collages highlighting Malagasy hair-braiding practices.
Her artistic approach explores transmission, identity and representation through the prism of Malagasy culture. She works across multiple media — drawing, collage, photography and video — to address these themes. She is interested in the ways narratives, images and objects shape our perception of ourselves and influence collective memory. Her point of entry into these reflections is the practice of hairstyling and all that it encompasses: hair, braids, tools, meanings and craftsmanship. Her approach combines research, experimentation and service design. Central to her process is interaction with audiences: she seeks to create experiences that encourage the collective reaffirmation of histories and identities.