Tunisia – Tunisia opens its largest national Museum of Modern Art

Location: Tunis, Tunisia

Language: Arabic

Duration: 00:05:05

Voice: Natural

Source: A24 Tunisia

Restriction: A24 subscribers

Date: 25/08/2022

Storyline:

After three years of preparation, Tunis inaugurated on Thursday the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in the Tunisian City of Culture. Tunisian Prime Minister Najla Boudin supervised the official opening of the museum, which will open to the public on September 10. The opening included art exhibition entitled “Plastic Arts in Tunisia, a Journey with the National History 1850-2021″, showcasing about 400 Tunisian artworks such as painting, sculpture, weaving, photography, engraving and other forms of contemporary art. Mohamed Hashisha, the museum’s director, told A24 that this is Tunisia’s largest plastic arts exhibition as the artworks on display represent different periods of the country, including colonialism, the Tunisian school, abstraction, weaving and its development in the 1990s. He urged all segments of society, including children and youth, to participate in the exhibition and take advantage of this opportunity. 

Shot list:

Soundbite (Mohamed Hashisha – in charge of running the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art):

“This exhibition is a journey in the national history of plastic arts in Tunisia over a period of more than a century and a half, since the beginning of predicate painting in Tunisia. Through this exhibition, we wanted to present the various historical periods in the history of plastic art in Tunisia. This exhibition is the largest Tunisian plastic arts exhibition, which includes works from 1850 until 2021 in various periods: colonialism, the Tunisian school, abstraction, weaving and its evolution in the 1990s, contemporary art, ceramics, sculpture, photography, and engraving. This exhibition and museum is an opportunity for plastic artists and everyone to participate in it. It will open to the public on September 10. This exhibition, which will last six months, and perhaps more, must be alive with its visitors, artists, tourists, children and young people.”.”

Soundbite (Sadiq Qamch – Tunisian painter since 1956):

“I call this exhibition “The Memory of Tunisian Art,” because the development of plastic arts, since its inception in Tunisia, is ambiguous. I only have one painting here, like most of the other artists and exhibitors. I drew my displayed painting in 1982, representing the Sabra and Shatila massacre. I painted the Israeli soldiers killing children of Palestine.  This is my favorite painting and I am glad that the museum has chosen it to display in the first exhibition along with other great works. There are thousands of art works that reflect Tunisia in the period of French rule and present era.”