Younès Ben Slimane: Images de Tunisie

About

Younès Ben Slimane is a Tunisian artist and filmmaker based in Paris, France. Initially trained as an architect, he uses the camera as a tool to capture the ‘spirit of places.’ ZHF commissioned Ben Slimane to research and create new work that relates to cultural hybridity and interdisciplinarity in architecture and the built environment. The exhibition brings together three of his films exploring the meaning of images and architectural legacies in Tunisia. It includes Images de Tunisie (2024), a newly commissioned film by ZHF. 

Images de Tunisie is an intimate portrayal of Tunisia’s architectural landscape and its atmospheres, memories and traditions. It appropriates ethnographic documentaries on architecture and rural life in Tunisia, sourced from France’s national audiovisual archive (INA). Scenes from 1940s newsreels produced by Les Actualités Françaises are combined with new footage from the same sites, including Matmata, Douiret and Tameghza.   

The exhibition also features Parallel (2018), which presents the interplay between steam and natural light inside of interior of a hammam in Hammamet, where the first public baths in the city were built by the Romans, and All Come From Dust (2019), an exploration into the preservation of the craftmanship of bricklaying in Tozeur, where Ben Slimane’s ancestors lived and worked. 

About Younès Ben Slimane 

Younès Ben Slimane’s work has been exhibited at Mucem, France, Solar -Galeria de Arte Cinemática, Portugal, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Macedonia, and his films have been screened at international festivals such as Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland, and CPH:DOX, Denmark. His work is part of several collections including MACBA and Kadist Art Foundation. This year, he will be participating at Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Senegal. 

Ben Slimane completed his degree in architecture at l’École Nationale d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme, Tunisia, and his post-graduate studies at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains, France. He has undertaken artist residencies at Fiminco and Cité Internationale des Arts, France, and Villa Medici, Italy.