Tunisia’s first hub dedicated to arts and culture, B7L9, is currently playing host to a unique exhibition centred around marriage dynamics and its surrounding culture. Now well underway, the event kicked off last Friday 20 with Dora Dalila Cheffi, a Tunisian-Finnish artist, steering the wheel behind the month-long display.
Running up until July 17, the Helsinki-born creative has been in a long-term studio and research residency at B7L9 over the past year and is now keeping the experience very much alive through this new cultural presentation. Having showcased her group works at various locations around the globe, including Habitare and Galerie Kajaste Helsinki, Cheffi is marking an exciting comeback to the city where she unveiled her first solo presentation, Bitter Oranges, back in February 2020.
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Her ongoing venture, named Prestige, explores the ins and outs of Tunisian weddings and marriages. Shedding light on the aesthetics, sounds, images and social cues of matrimonial unions, the show is topped off with a touch of relatability as the part-Tunisian made sure to include dashes of her own personal reminiscences. To broaden her knowledge and insight, the young visual artist went even further as she travelled across her home country to develop her concept and general approach all while attending various ceremonies throughout the republic.
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“I had been fascinated by marriage since childhood. They were, after all, the main family parties I was invited to whilst visiting my father in Tunisia. I’m certain attending his wedding may have also had something to do with it too. More than a life-goal, it was the sense of ceremony and the theatrics of it all that intrigued me the most – the gold, the exaggerated make-up and speakers, the hairdos, the thrones, the red carpet,” the artist said in a statement.
“That precious moment when the bride and groom sit together, teetering between life-long happiness and a slip into embarrassment, or worse – a life long obligation they did not expect. After all, the idea of marriage is beautiful and romantic, but the realities of commitment that follow are often unexpected, neatly hidden from view,” she continued.
Making use of several mediums of art, namely paintings, video pieces, and live performances, the artist brings the essence of Tunisian ways of marriage back to the capital to bring her recollections and first-hand experiences to life. Labeled as “a very personal approach to a fundamental element of Tunisian life”, the exhibition is a real cocktail full of amazement, humor and self-reflection. Supported by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation’s funding, Dora Dalila Cheffi’s solo show is one to make sure to check if ever around Tunis in the weeks to come.
