
Slimen El Kamel
Slimen El Kamel was born in Mazouna in the region of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia.
Biography
Slimen El Kamel was born in Mazouna in the region of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia. Nurtured in the popular narrative, his childhood was moulded by the imagination of the rural environment where the tradition of folk tales and poetry flourished. His studies at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Tunis allowed him to crystallise this literary and intellectual heritage into a singular artistic practice. A practice whose genesis opens through writing and draws its resources from its texts, sometimes poetic or literary, sometimes memorial or improvised. The daily writing exercise, while it delimits, extends the horizons of its physical universe.
Not far from free figuration, the artist questions the relationship between the real and the imaginary through the dramatization of the constellated image. Images of memory, of a reality taken from everyday media, intersect in a pictorial field where, on the surface of a picture, the rustling of a dialogue begins without end, not for the narrative of a fact, but for a festival of narratives.
His more recent work considers the links between the human body and everyday consumable objects. El Kamel considers the ways in which virtual and lived reality hinge upon visual and auditory channels of communication.
El Kamel holds a Masters in painting from the Tunis Institute of Fine Arts. He has participated in exhibitions and art fairs in Africa and Europe. El Kamel was an art resident at the Living Arts Center at Rades for a year and paid multiple artistic and research visits to Paris, Algeria, and Bahrain. He was a finalist of the inaugural Sovereign MENA Art Prize in partnership with Start. This prize awards 30 of the most exciting mid-career artists across the MENA region with an exhibition in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai. The exhibition took place in October 2016. The artist is also active as an art critic.
Selected Works
Exhibitions
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Underskin, Sulger Buel gallery, London, UK – October 2018
Carapace, Artyshow gallery, La Marsa, Tunisia – 2011
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
d:ONE, Hôtel Dar El Jeld, Tunis – April 2019
Résonances / Gorgi Pluriel, Palais Kheireddine, Exposition Talan – AGorgi gallery, Tunis – 2019
Une ligne, un tracé…, AGorgi Gallery, JAOU 2018, Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia – July 2018
Etat des lieux, AGorgi Gallery, Sidi Bou Saïd, Tunisia – January 2018
3ajel / Le Temps Réel, Exposition Talan – AGorgi gallery, Tunis – 2016
El Marsa Gallery, Dubaï – 2016
National Library of Tunis – 2016
SMAP Art, The Union of Arts, Tunis – 2015
National library of Tunis – 2015
Black board, Acropolium of Carthage, Tunisia – 2015
Exhibition in the memory of Mahmoud Messadi, Tunis – 2012
National Library of Tunis – 2011
Spring sessions of Arts, La Marsa, Tunisia – 2009 – 2011
Cultural Center of Gabes, Tunisia – 2009
Artyshow gallery, La Marsa, Tunisia – 2009
ART FAIRS & BIENNALES
1.54 Contemporary African Art Fair, New York – 2019
1.54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Marrakech – 2019
1.54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London – 2018
Biennale de Dakar, Sénégal – 2018
1.54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Marrakech – 2018
Turbine Art Fair, South Africa – 2017
Art Paris Art Fair, Paris, France – 2017
AKAA Contemporary Art & Design Fair, Paris, France – 2017
1.54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London – 2017
Art Dubai Contemporary Fair – 2017
1.54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London – 2016
Cape town Art Fair, South Africa – 2016
Laureate of Cachan biennale, France – 2016
Nomited to Mena Art Prize – 2016
Art Dubai – 2015