Portrait redux is a group show reflecting on Modern and Contemporary international artists’ approach to a traditional genre, yet re-emerging and constantly re-invented across history.
With “selfie” celebrated as the word of 2013 and the never-ending redefinition of the self, our understanding of the portrait is being more than ever challenged.
The exhibition takes the present issue into the realm of art through a selection of works ranging from original vintage prints stemming from the tradition of studio photography to sculpture and video that push the concept forward but do not impose a specific reading. Different media portraits of celebrities and artists alongside anonymous and fictional portraits engage into a dialogue that brings up some possibilities related to intimacy, politics, society, memory and fiction. Multiple narratives unfold as we move through the historically loaded space of Selma Feriani Gallery, formerly a convent and a girls’ school in Sidi Bou Said.
Featured artists : Farhad Ahrarnia, Aninat & Swinburn, Ziad Antar, Ali Bellagha, Yesmine Ben Khelil, Ymen Berhouma, Bernard Buffet, Jean Cocteau, Hichem Driss, Hatem El Mekki, Abdelaziz Gorgi, Ali Kazim, Nicène Kossentini, Marie Laurencin, Mimmo Rotella, Massinissa Selmani, Malick Sidibé and Raed Yassin.