WOMEN
PHOTOGRAPHERS IN TUNISIA
"Artocracy" DURING JASMIN REVOLUTION
by
Patrizia Pulga
Sophia
Baraket in the video InsideOut –
Episode 1, by JR: picture taken at
Spazio Gerra Gallery, Reggio Emilia, Italy
| I
have recently had the pleasure to visit a very important and unusual exhibit named
ARTOCRACY IN TUNISIA, one of the most ambitious and fascinating street art projects
that testify how important photography was during Tunisian revolution. |
In
March 2011 the French graffiti artist and performer
JR (He has described himself as a "photograffeur") created a project
named InsideOut.
JR invited people around the globe to share black and
white photo portraits. After uploading the picture, along with a supporting personal
statement, users were mailed a poster of their portrait and asked to paste it
in their local community where they wished: on an office window, among other portraits
on the wall of an abandoned building, or in a full stadium. |
a
portrait pasted on a wall in La Goulette (suburbs of Tunis)
| A
group of photographers in Tunisia were the first to participate in an InsideOut
community project, which they named Artocracy, started by Slim Zeghal and Marco
Berrebi and carried out with six other Tunisian photographers: Hela Ammar, Sophia
Baraket, Rania Dourai and their colleagues Hichem Driss, Wissal Dargueche and
Aziz Tnani. |
Ammar
pictures pasted on a car burnt in Sidi Bouzid during the uprising
Ammar
pictures on the walls - Inside Out project
In
fact, after the deposition of President Ben Ali on January 14th, the group was
joined by JR and his team and they traveled all around the country to take pictures
and display images of more than 100 Tunisians who represent the nation’s
incredible diversity: men and women of every age, profession, cultural background
and geographic location.
The idea of ARTOCRACY (art + democracy) was to display
these portraits in the streets and in locations of symbolic importance of the
country to fight against the dictator who had been ruling since 1987: a very important
and significant action for a country which so far had only exposed the portraits
of the ruler in the streets and a very new way of sharing art in a democratic
way!
|
Baraket
picture on the wall (left) Portrait
of a woman (right)
THE
WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS’ PRESENCE
Something about the women photographers
in this group, whose social contribution to African photography is very important.
HELA
AMMAR (www.helaammar.com), born in 1969,
is a well-known visual artist who has exposed in many exhibits in Tunisia and
abroad and who had studied in France. Most of her pictures are focused on the
women’s condition and on the changes of her country.
The younger
SOPHIA BARAKET (www.sophiabaraket.com)
who had studied in Italy, and RANIA DOURAI, who had studied in France, were very
active in the project and really represented a link between North Africa and Europe
THE
EXHIBITION
The exhibit of a selection of the pictures was held at Spazio Gerra
(www.spaziogerra.it), a public gallery
in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
In the gallery are also shown some pictures of their
making of and a video InsideOut – the first episode, to document the realization
of ARTOCRACY’s projects.
Actually both exhibit and video are traveling
around Europe.
Video
clip of INSIDE OUT
The creator, of the project "artocracy" JR's
work combines art and action and deals with commitment, freedom, identity and
limits |
Tunisian
women; vintage B/W pictures taken in Kerkennah Island in 1990
All
rights reserved
copyright WomenInPhotography.org |
WIPI PhotoProfile