AT HAND exhibition

“To think about, through and with it…”
“At Hand” is an experimental conceptual project that sheds light on the ordinary objects found in areas far from the Center; regular everyday objects left behind, mostly perceived as worthless, such as waste from the oasis, wild plants, debris of burlap, paper, bricks, cement, and wool…use-less objects that overflow the streets and alleys.
“At Hand” offers a vision of thinking about, through and with the material, and merging with it, in the form of simple exercises. It invites the visitor to a journey to harness a clearer perception of the studied objects, and to understand the material at hand by working with it, testing its flexibility or rigidity and the conditions for its possible connection, fusion, or accumulation. The journey offers a visual dictionary that seeks to explore and create relationships between the part and the part, and the part and the whole. Spaces, textures, tissues, and propositions of other forms generated through varying techniques and development processes.
The project thus raises a debate potentially foundational in thinking about aesthetic approaches that draw from the work itself and nothing else; in its time, place and geo-historical extensions. To break down (and from) the known, the familiar, the practiced, the agreed upon, the ready, the direct, and the imported. Towards building a hope-based narrative derived from the conditions of labor, struggle, and rooting, a narrative that resembles and reflects the reality of the owners of the land in all its simplicity and depth.
“At Hand” is to tell a story and narrate it without words, without pictures or personification. To tell a story solely through the material, the raw material, something that was and still is available here and now.
Can the material tell a story? A story that resembles its owner in her place and time, a space that is no one else’s?
Can what is “at hand” be transformed from a purely physical material into an expression, a meaning, and an idea that is born from the womb of the place?
“At Hand” is an extension of the vision of Danseurs Citoyens Sud through the No Name Eco-Lab – opening its doors for the first time, in the form of a meeting between a group of graduates and students of the Higher Institute of Arts and Crafts in Gabes and their curator (supervisor of the exhibition). This exhibition offers a space for thinking and discussing innovative ways and approaches around the idea of availability (of materials and resources) and the potentialities of transcending with this concept to meaningful lengths and dimensions.
Note: Work on the exhibition began in 2019 in the form of workshops and supervision of graduation projects by the exhibition curator. Today, it is being seen and shared with the general public.
Mohamed Amine Hamouda, Director of Visual Arts Department of Danseurs Citoyens Sud.