Gabès' NFNW
News From Nowhere exhibition, 2021, GCF Gabès, Tunisia
The project News From Nowhere at Gabes Cinema Fen tries to question the concept of future archaeology in resonance with the memory and political history of the exhibition site in Gabes city. It takes place in the former RCD headquarter (tunisian ex-ruling party from dictatorship times) that was burnt during the revolution in 2011.
“Burnt” video installation 2’32, News from Nowhere GCF, Exhibition 2021
Created for NFNW's exhibition in Gabès, Burnt parallels its setting by being filmed in the ruins of a former private restaurant once owned by dictator Ben Ali on Sidi Dhrif beach in Tunis.
The video, filmed through a damaged phone screen found on the beach of Sidi Dhrif, is also shown on a phone screen, underlying questions like the collective reconstruction of a community's self-image, or the reappropriation of a site (symbol of injustice) that has become something of a monument.
The restaurant was also burned during the revolution. Under the police regime, the entire beach surrounding the restaurant had been forbidden to the public, but after the revolution, the site was re-appropriated by the people and even became a sort of local visitor attraction. Families, couples, and fishermen now come to enjoy a beach walk, visit the ruins of the former regime, and take souvenir photos.
“1988/ The clapping ghosts” installation,
2021, News from Nowhere at Gabes Cinéma Fen“ Exhibition
The installation “1988/ The clapping ghosts” transmits one of the first speeches by dictator Ben Ali from 1988, removing his voice from the recording and leaving only the applause, which echoes in front of the burned, empty chairs.
Screenshots from the video "Gabès" 9’ 2018
The video is a trip that goes back in one shot, to one part of the phosphate road to the city of Gabes, located in southeast Tunisia, which is unique in that it is an oasis and, at the same time, a seaport overlooking the Mediterranean. Since its establishment in the seventies, the Chemical Complex has caused environmental damage to the city of Gabes, where the phosphate is processed for export to Europe. Daily the complex pours tons of its toxic waste into the sea of the city.
Visitors are discovering the exhibition
News from Nowhere at Gabes Cinéma Fen, 2021