The Fiaf has invited Tunisia for the fifth edition of its World Nomads festival, conceived as a forum for dialogue between cultures. It is also an opportunity to create links between artistic disciplines like street and performance art, music, dance, cinema, crafts and photography in their responses to the festival’s theme.
The photography curator Leila Souissi has put together a two-part exhibition at the White Box Gallery and the French Institute. The selection at the White Box features work by Héla Ammar, Amine Boussoffara, Wassim Ghozlani, Amine Landoulsi, Zied Ben Romdhane, Rim Temimi and Patricia Triki.
By integrating images documenting the 2011 popular uprising against President Ben Ali, the curator shows how the revolution was an opportunity for artists to express themselves freely in a public space without official permission. The exhibition looks beyond the Arab Spring, offering a broader discussion on the Tunisian social context, including the role of women in both the arts and politics.
The work of Wassim Ghozlani takes the form of round images 40cm in diameter, the size of a Do Not Enter sign, which he imitates in his photographs by dressing women in red burqas and barring their eyes with a white headband, evoking their loss of sight and limited access to knowledge. This virulent series is matched by the work of eight women artists questioning their status, Patricia Triki and Héla Ammar at the White Box, as well as Amel Ben Attia, Nicène Kossentini and Mouna Jemal Siala at the Fiaf gallery.
Laurence Cornet
World Nomads Tunisia: The After Revolution
4 – 18 May, 2013
White Box
329 Broome Street
NYC
From May 8th to June 1st, 2013
FIAF Gallery
22 East 60th Street
NYC
