Cologne (Germany) (AFP)

Curled up in a supermarket shopping cart, Kiki Malliora rushes past her sister, laughing loudly, in an ephemeral museum in Cologne, Germany, where Instagram regulars hunt "likes".

Bubble gum balloons, neon fashionable old "diner" American prefabricated ... the "Supercandy Museum" exposes since November 1, and for three months, fully calibrated photo sets for social networks and users to the search for original clichés to boost their online audience.

"Of course that the staging is wrong, but what matters to me is that people see that I'm having a good time," defends the 38-year-old, dressed in a simple T-shirt black and jeans.

These "temporary museums of the selfie" have multiplied all over the world in recent years, allowing any smartphone holder to take a picture in front of a string of colorful and fanciful sets to animate its networks.

This is the second time that the "Supercandy museum" moved to Cologne, after a first edition that had attracted 42,000 people, mostly women, for six months, for a price of 29 euros.

- Authenticity -

Will this concept continue to be successful? Nothing is less certain because a new trend is gaining ground on social networks, privileging authenticity.

More and more internet stars are confiding in the difficulties involved in the daily publication of "perfect" images on their page.

Witness American singer Demi Lovato, who has collected 10 million "likes" on Instagram by posting a picture of her in a bikini showing her cellulite.

Instagram is even experimenting with the removal of the "like" button, in response to criticism of its impact on the mental health of its users, desperate as soon as a photo is not appreciated enough.

Frank Karch, the man behind the concept of the pop-up museum in Cologne, says that ticket sales are "up" for this second edition, held in an industrial building in the trendy Ehrenfeld district.

"One day when the other this craze is definitely going to take its time," he admits. But according to him, there is room for everyone.

"The great underlying trend will remain the same as since the invention of painting: people want to have a good image of themselves," he says.

An opinion shared by the expert in social networks Klemens Skibicki, professor at the Cologne Business School. For him, a gulf is even growing between the average user of social networks and those who live.

- Professional photographers -

Not interested in "selfies", which everyone can practice, the stars of social networks do not hesitate to call on professional photographers to stand out.

This is the case of the German stars of reality TV Ginger Costello Wollersheim and Bert Wollersheim, who accumulate 85,000 "followers" between them.

Visitors to the "Supercandy Museum" one day, they play with bundles of pink $ 100 banknotes, while a photographer immortalises them.

"If we only put bad pictures online for a while, we automatically have fewer likes, and people are unsubscribing, that's why we make creative and beautiful photos," says Ginger Costello Wollersheim, 33 years.

"Coming here is funny and it enhances our publications, it's good professionally," adds her husband Bert, 68.

But not everyone sees the value of such a giant photo studio.

In a busy shopping street in Cologne, at the foot of the imposing cathedral, Anna Maria, high school student, is reluctant to spend money to pose in front of an artificial decor.

"It's way too wrong, I prefer spontaneous photos, when someone laughs, or is busy doing something," says the 17-year-old.

"And I do selfie only on one condition: that my friends are with me".

© 2019 AFP