[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_custom_heading heading_semantic=”h6″ text_size=”h6″ text_transform=”uppercase” text_color=”accent”]Production[\/vc_custom_heading][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”8\/12″][vc_custom_heading heading_semantic=”h3″ text_size=”h1″ subheading=”Group show, exhibition production, June to October 2023, 32Bis, Tunis”]MU\u02bfAWIYA\u2019S THREAD<\/b>[\/vc_custom_heading][vc_empty_space empty_h=”2″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there were only one thread between me and the people, it will never break. If they stretch it, I loosen it, and if they loosen it, I stretch it.\u201d This saying is traditionally attributed to the caliph Mu\u02bfawiya, a major figure of the first Fitna, a period of successive wars from which he emerged victorious in 661. An elegy for volatile equilibrium, the metaphor suggests that stability is not the antidote to crisis. How, then, are we to navigate these boiling forces? What happens if the thread breaks?<\/p>\n
Mu\u02bfawiya\u2019s Thread<\/em> is an exhibition interested in the ways in which we make sense of tumultuous times. To that end, it delves into the imaginaries conjured by the word fitna<\/em>, which traditionally refers to political crises in early Islam. Fitna<\/em> also manifests as the turmoil of love, just as it does in the social body at large. Using this analogy, this exhibition calls for embracing the desynchronized expressions of liberty.<\/p>\n Tunisian historian Hichem Dja\u00eft\u2019s (1935-2021) book La Grande Discorde<\/em> [The Great Discord] (1989) provided a conceptual framework for the exhibition. The Ring of the Dove<\/em>, a treatise on love written by the poet Ibn Hazm in the 11th century, helped elucidate the resonances between disorder in politics and disorder in love. The works on display, many of which emerge from residencies at 32Bis, are the fruits of a reflection shared with some twenty artists from Tunisia and beyond.<\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n \u00ab S\u2019il n\u2019y avait entre moi et mes sujets qu\u2019un cheveu, je le rel\u00e2cherais quand ils le tirent, et le tendrais quand ils le laissent aller \u00bb. La tradition pr\u00eate cette sentence au calife Mu\u02bfawiya, acteur majeur de la premi\u00e8re Fitna, p\u00e9riode de guerres successives dont il sortit vainqueur en 661. \u00c9loge de l\u2019\u00e9quilibre fluctuant, la m\u00e9taphore sugg\u00e8re que la stabilit\u00e9 n\u2019est pas un horizon de sortie de crise. D\u00e8s lors, comment organiser ces forces en action ? Que se passerait-il si le cheveu venait \u00e0 se rompre ?<\/p>\n L\u2019exposition Le Cheveu de Mu\u02bfawiya<\/em> s\u2019int\u00e9resse \u00e0 la fa\u00e7on dont nous donnons du sens aux p\u00e9riodes de tumulte. Elle puise pour cela dans les imaginaires li\u00e9s au mot fitna<\/em>, qui d\u00e9signe traditionnellement les crises politiques de l\u2019Islam des origines. Les significations complexes de fitna<\/em> renvoient aussi bien au trouble amoureux qu\u2019\u00e0 celui du corps social. \u00c0 travers cette analogie, l\u2019exposition appelle \u00e0 embrasser les expressions d\u00e9sordonn\u00e9es de la libert\u00e9.<\/p>\n La lecture du livre La Grande Discorde<\/em> (1989) de l\u2019historien tunisien Hichem Dja\u00eft (1935-2021) a accompagn\u00e9 la conception de cette exposition. Le Collier de la colombe<\/em>, trait\u00e9 sur l\u2019amour compos\u00e9 par le po\u00e8te Ibn Hazm au XIe si\u00e8cle, a donn\u00e9 mati\u00e8re au rapprochement entre trouble politique et trouble passionnel. Les \u0153uvres montr\u00e9es sont le fruit d\u2019une r\u00e9flexion partag\u00e9e avec une vingtaine d\u2019artistes de Tunisie et d\u2019autres horizons. Nombre d\u2019entre elles furent sp\u00e9cialement con\u00e7ues lors de r\u00e9sidences au 32Bis.<\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text text_lead=”small”]<\/p>\n Artists:<\/strong> Marwan Elgamal, Randa Mirza, Jo\u00eblle de La Casini\u00e8re, Gouider Triki, Souhir El Amine, Abdoulaye Konat\u00e9, Amel Bennys, Jan Kopp, Huda Lutfi, Intissar Bela\u00efd, Emmanuelle Andrianjafy, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Lina Ben Rejeb, Siryne Eloued, Ngozi-Omeje Ezema, Doa Aly, Wiame Haddad, Dorothy Iannone, Sarah Pucci, Slavs and Tatars, Yazan Khalili and Lara Khaldi.<\/p>\n Curator:<\/strong> Nadine Atallah<\/p>\n Artistic direction:<\/strong> Camille L\u00e9vy Sarfati<\/p>\n Production:<\/strong> Hela Djobbi, Salma Kossemtini, Roya Mansar<\/p>\n My role:<\/strong> production of the new works and follow-up of Huda Lutfi, Intissar Bela\u00efd, Jan Kopp, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Ngozi-Omeje Ezema and Slavs and Tatars.<\/p>\n Scenography:<\/strong> Agence Dzeta<\/p>\n Mediation:<\/strong> Wissal Bettaieb[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space empty_h=”2″][vc_gallery el_id=”gallery-284150″ medias=”84474,84475,84476,84437,84435,84434,84433,84431,84442,84441,84440,84438,84453,84452,84461,84460,84459,84458,84457,84456,84455″ gutter_size=”3″ media_items=”media|lightbox|original,icon,description” screen_lg=”1000″ screen_md=”600″ screen_sm=”480″ single_overlay_opacity=”50″ single_padding=”2″][vc_column_text text_lead=”small”]Photos: Nicolas Fauqu\u00e9, courtesy of 32Bis<\/em><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_empty_space empty_h=”2″][vc_column_text text_lead=”small”]Le Cheveu de Mu\u02bfawiya, InVisu (CNRS-INHA) \u2197<\/a><\/p>\n