The Transformation of Silence: with Héla Ammar and Souad Mani curated by Marianna Liosi
With a focus on persisting injustices in post-2011 Tunisia, the Transformation of Silence is an exhibition curated by Marianna Liosi that explores different forms of truth seeking, as well as the emotions linked to persisting social injustices that affect the country and its communities. Stemming from personal and societal feelings of rage, frustration, and disillusion, a variety of artworks by Tunisian artists Héla Ammar and Souad Mani seek to express dissent and political action. They provide an overview of the challenges that the Tunisian civil society has to face, from legacies of injustice, massive migration to severe pollution. Simultaneously, the works play as “glitches” in the current social and political system that can open the space for political change.
The show brings together performative videos, video installations, sculptures, photographs, as well as new productions and archive materials that trace trajectories through spaces, confronting historical moments and desires across times.
The title of the exhibition is inspired by a speech held by Afro-American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor and civil rights activist Audre Lorde, which is an invocation to take action and speak out.
The Transformation of Silence, curated by Marianna Liosi, is one of the outcomes of her 2021 fellowship on Memory & Justice, at Merian Center for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM), Tunis. The event is the result of, and has been made possible by the cooperation between MECAM and La Boîte (Tunis), with the kind support of Fatma Kilani.
Details:
Opening date: Thursday, September 22, 2022, at 17:00.
Location: at Chapel of Saint-Monique, Rue Victor Hugo 2016, Carthage-Présidence, Tunis.
Opening hours:
– Monday to Friday, from 11 am to 5 pm
– Saturday, from 10 am to 1 pm
Duration of the event : From Friday 23 September, to Friday 14 October 2022.
Marianna Liosi is art curator, researcher, lecturer and cultural producer. She lives and works in Berlin. Marianna was MECAM Fellow 2021, within the Memory & Justice thematic cluster. She served as guest lecturer at the MA program Spatial Strategies at Weißensee Fine Arts Academy, Berlin (2021-2022) and as lecturer at LABA- The Free Fine Arts Academy in Rimini (Italy) (2019-2022). In 2020, she completed her PhD in Humanities, at the University of Ferrara, Italy. Her research interests focus on the question of engaged spectatorship, social networks as digital archives, affect and emotions, and digital memory as a tool of resistance. In the last years, Marianna has been focusing on education as curatorial practice.
She has curated film screenings, workshops, exhibitions and she has lectured in art and academic institutions, such as HAU4, online, and MECAM’s Winter Talks #3, online (2022); European Month of Photography, Coculture, Berlin (2020); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2019); 00 Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Superior Institute of Fine Arts (ISBA) Sousse, Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme, Paris, D21 Kunstraum in Leipzig (2018); Between Bridges, Berlin (2016). Marianna has published essays in artists’ books and academic edited volumes.
Souad Mani is a transmedia artist. She lives and works in Sousse, Tunisia. Her work is transdisciplinary, and it unfolds through techno-poetic experiments. In a geo-pictorial and geo-relational approach, she addresses questions about the status of the artwork, the artist and the viewer in the era of collective intelligence and interconnected objects.
From photography and video to Land Art and data visualizations, Souad Mani’s works examine the possible transformations of a medium or a landscape.
Her work has been exhibited at the Casa Árabe, Madrid (2021), the Biennial of Photographers of the Contemporary Arab World at the Arab World Institute, Paris (2017), and at the MuCem, Marseille (2015). She took part in various festivals in Tunisia, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Czech and has participated in several group exhibitions in Tunisia.
Héla Ammar is a visual artist. She lives and works in Tunis, Tunisia. Besides her training in visual art, she holds a Phd in Law. Her photographs and installations address the stakes of memory. Identity and marginal communities are recurrent issues in her work.
A selection of her photographs and installations is part of the permanent collection of the British Museum, London, the Arab World Institute, Paris, and the A. Slaoui Foundation’s Museum, Casablanca.
Her work has been showcased in various international biennals and exhibitions such as Reflections at The British Museum, London (2021), The refugee week, featured by Shubbak Festival at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2019), Beyond borders at the Boghossian Foundation, Brussels (2019), Kerkennah#01, Kerkennah (2018), The Biennal of the Contemporary Arab world photographers, Arab World Institute, Paris (2017), Bamako Encounters, Mali (2017, 2015), Dak’art Biennal, Dakar (2016, 2014), Dream City, Tunis (2017, 2012, 2010).
Héla Ammar is a visual artist. She lives and works in Tunis, Tunisia. Besides her training in visual art, she holds a Phd in Law. Her photographs and installations address the stakes of memory. Identity and marginal communities are recurrent issues in her work.
A selection of her photographs and installations is part of the permanent collection of the British Museum, London, the Arab World Institute, Paris, and the A. Slaoui Foundation’s Museum, Casablanca.
Her work has been showcased in various international biennals and exhibitions such as Reflections at The British Museum, London (2021), The refugee week, featured by Shubbak Festival at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2019), Beyond borders at the Boghossian Foundation, Brussels (2019), Kerkennah#01, Kerkennah (2018), The Biennal of the Contemporary Arab world photographers, Arab World Institute, Paris (2017), Bamako Encounters, Mali (2017, 2015), Dak’art Biennal, Dakar (2016, 2014), Dream City, Tunis (2017, 2012, 2010).