Tunisia – Immigrant Creative Week seeks to connect talent to development

Location: Tunis – Tunisia

Language: Arabic

Duration:00:05:14

Sound: natural

Source: A24 Tunis

Restrictions: A24 subscribers

Date: 19/07/ 2022

Storyline:

A series of events is now underway in Tunis as the government seeks to leverage the talent and capital of Tunisians currently living in Europe for the development of the North African nation. 

The Tunisian Immigrant Creative Week is underway to strengthen ties between those who have sought their fortunes elsewhere and their homeland.

This week’s series of events includes participation of  about 100 Tunisian artists currently living abroad. Organizers hope to strengthen ties between this creative diaspora and their native land.

The festival includes seminars, exhibitions, concerts, and hands-on workshops with expatriate and locally based artists collaborating on projects.

Director-General of the Office of Tunisians Abroad Nahed Rajh explained to  A24 News Agency that his agency is running a parallel economic forum for expatriate business people to encourage investment in Tunisia.

The country suffers a significant brain drain with nearly a million Tunisians living abroad.  

Shotlist:

– Soundbite (Nahid Al-Rajhi – Director General of the Office of Tunisians Abroad)

            “Same as every Tunisian Immigrant Creative Week, the event is divided into two parts, the fist part is the citizen forum for immigrant generations hosted by Hammamet city to benefit a 100 Tunisians in 25 families. In the forum, Tunisians from abroad meet citizens in Tunisia to experience the culture and family atmosphere, and to build relationships with families from different countries. The second part is the festival currently being held in the city of culture, which started on July 18^th and will last until July 22^nd. The festival includes a number of intellectual, artistic, cultural and musical activities. The festival will also include an economic forum for businessmen to encourage them to invest in Tunisia. The festival consists of diverse activities, the most important of which are those by and for Tunisian diaspora.”

– Soundbite (Mohamed Al-Tariki – Belgian-Tunisian visual artist):

            “I’m very happy to be participating in this event. This is the third time the Tunisian government has requested me. The purpose of the forum is to shed light on previous connections made, which is why many artists from Switzerland, France, Belgium, Germany and Austria, were called to participate, each with their own different identity, but similar love for Tunisia. The works presented by these artists exhibit Tunisian spirit in their colors and shapes. I disagree with master artist Al-Tilili who said they are incomplete works. Expatriate artists are susceptible to losing artistic balance due to being away from their homeland, but I feel that all Tunisians living abroad keep their love for Tunisia alive. It is love for our country that keeps us moving forward.”

– Soundbite (Sania Bin Ahmad Frigario – Visual artist specializing in Swiss-Tunisian mosaics):

            “This event is very important for us artists living abroad because we get the opportunity to come back to our homeland Tunisia to show our works and introduce ourselves. We get to know Tunisian artists here and form artistic cooperation. The event kicked off to a good start, there are many visitors, I showed my paintings, and managed a mosaic workshop for children. The turnout was large, proving that children are interested in art and mosaics, which makes me very happy.”