Innovative Curatorial Projects – Paris / SingaporeAla Eddine Slim
*1982, Sousse, Tunisia. Lives and works in Tunis, Tunisia.
A video and filmmaker, Ala Eddine Slim has directed three short films, L’automne, Une nuit parmi les autres and The Stadium, as well as a feature-length documentary, Babylon, the latter with Ismaël and Youssef Chebbi. In 2010, during the uprising and subsequent repression of the people in Tunisia, he directed Journal d’un homme important, a four-part video series, followed by a second series titled Journal d’une femme importante. In terms of form and content alike, Ala Eddine Slim's work is highly experimental. It has garnered numerous international awards (FID Marseille, DocLisboa, among others) and has been shown in festivals and art centers throughout the world (MoMA, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tabakalera, Clermont Ferrand, to cite just a few).
Journal d’un homme important / Tunisia / 2010 / 7’47 / 16:9
In a space out of time, an unknown man is undergoing an unidentified form of torture – or so it seems, for as the minutes pass it begins to appear that the violence is self ‐ inflicted. Words appear in Arabic script, overlain over a hood covering his face and on his naked body: they describe his status as a middle ‐aged bureaucrat. The video was filmed over a few days in December 2010, at the height of the events in urban Tunisia that brought on the “Arab Spring”.