BEAUTYSALON

What shall we do today? Across every continent, Afro hair and beauty salons are safe spaces, forums for exchange and places for discussion and debate. In Beautysalon, four Black women take their seats in their hair salon. As the hairstyles take shape, each of them tells stories, their own stories. Stories of Black Switzerland, touching on themes such as identity, emancipation, racism and Eurocentric beauty standards. This joyful, chaotic piece explores an essential cultural feature shared by generations of Black women in Europe: a plunge into a vibrant counter-narrative. Kapi Kapinga Grab, a Congolese woman who has lived in Zurich since 2010, is a writer, artistic director and activist. She is particularly interested in questions surrounding the decolonisation of knowledge and the representation of people of different ethnic backgrounds.