Coloring Outside the Lines of the Nation. An Iconological Analysis of the Tunisian Revolution

The Tunisian revolution not only liberated the country of its tenacious autocratic ruler, it also impacted, in a profound way, the imagination of prevailing political subjectivities. After Ben Ali fled the country, unsettled post-colonial tensions over the delineation of these changing subjectivities re-emerged, coloring outside the lines of the nation. The present paper analyzes this contentious process of becoming through an iconological analysis of the entangled dynamics of re-imagination that the national flag underwent during the Tunisian revolution, starting from the liberation phase in December 2010, through the constitutional phase and the promulgation of the new constitution in 2014, until the inauguration of the National Flag Square in March 2017. The present iconological analysis is not only paradoxically witness to the very limitation of the power of icons to engender dignified relationalities within a given nation, but is also witness to the slow closure of the revolutionary space and the gradual blockage of revolutionary processes of subject formation. This blockage was productive for the precarious restoration of national unity and state prestige necessary for the completion of the new constitution, but less for the demands for liberty, social justice and dignity so central to the revolution

The last monument standing the politics of time in the Tunisian Revolution

During the latest uprising in Tunisia, the agitated crowd almost totally destroyed the autocratic monumental landscape. As the provocative 'Anti-Clock Project' by visual artist Nidhal Chamekh shows, the strongest element of this landscape was not destroyed; it still stands in the capital today and illustrates how the imbricated strata of the contemporary monumental landscape can be understood as an inherited palimpsest that reveals hegemonic assumptions about the prevailing politics of time. The monumental translation of the new era promoted by the contested Ben Ali regime paradoxically froze the idea that change would facilitate general progress, innovation, modernization and development and guarantee a better future. In this article, we argue that the Clock Tower and the civilization project it materializes, initiated by colonial occupation and upheld by the consecutive postcolonial regimes, does not necessarily warrant a better future. Rather, it continues to restrain political sensibilities in the present time, dismisses historical pasts and withholds alternative futures

Turning a City Inside-Out. : On the Re-appropriation of Urban Space in Tunisia in Times of Revolt

Abstract The spatial dynamics were difficult to overlook during the 2011 movements of revolt in Tunisia, pushing the damned in the center of public attention in the concerted effort of turning prevailing authoritarian politics inside–out. Venturing in the spatial contestation central in these revolts, the mesmerizing occupation and re-appropriation of symbolic places, such as the Kasbah Square or Bourguiba Avenue takes center stage. These movements of occupation and re-appropriation of spatial power produced momentous heuristic enclaves of another order, projecting dreams of a renewed inclusive free and dignified body politic. Based on a long-term research in the field of visual arts in Tunisia between 2011 and 2017 and combining various postcolonial critiques, this article proposes to show how violent processes of destruction preceding these processes of re-appropriation and occupation are too often overlooked. Police stations, the presidential personality cult and the private estate of the authoritarian regime will be identified and treated as spatial nodes that maintain the compartmentalization and fragmentation of urban space in place. Moreover, by including in the analysis the often-omitted Islamist occupation and re-appropriation of mosques and public space contesting the ongoing constitutional political dynamics, this article hopes to elucidate why the revolutionary process failed in the production of a long aspired liberated and dignifying space, as the revolutionary re-appropriation of these symbolic nodes of power was not included in any political agenda.Une fois que le corps politique a convergé et formé une masse apparemment homogène mais indivise à Tunis en janvier 2011, il était difficile de ne pas tenir compte de la dynamique spatiale de l'essaim en mouvement, repoussant les damnés au centre de l'attention publique. En zoomant sur les propriétés de l'espace au sein de l'esthétique de la révolte et de l'esthétique révoltée de différents collectifs artistiques, il devient clair que la poussée de révolte qui a évincé le chef d’État a spontanément bouleversé l'esthétique dominante. Dans l'article proposé, on s'aventure dans la contestation de l'esthétique urbaine étatique et donc dans les processus par lesquels le pouvoir esthétique a été temporairement accumulée par le détournement ou la réappropriation de l'espace urbain dans différentes villes de Tunisie. L'occupation sublime et le détournement ou la réappropriation de lieux symboliques, tels que la place de la Kasbah ou l'avenue Bourguiba, ont produit une enclave heuristique momentanée d'un autre ordre, projetant des images d'un corps politique inclusif et d'un ordre policier renouvelés. Sur la base d'une observation participante à long terme dans le domaine des arts visuels en Tunisie entre 2011 et 2016, et en combinant les idées de la théorie esthétique et de diverses critiques postcoloniales, on propose de plonger dans les processus urbains et esthétiques de la révolte pour montrer comment les processus violents de perturbation et de destruction, souvent supervisés, ont précédé de manière répétée ces processus passionnants de détournement ou de réappropriation et d'occupation. Les commissariats de police, le culte de la personnalité présidentielle et les propriétés privées des membres du régime contesté seront discernés comme des nœuds spatiaux de l'esthétique étatique dominante qui maintiennent en place la compartimentation et la fragmentation de l'espace urbain. De plus, en incluant l'occupation souvent omise des mosquées et les poches de révolte subséquentes qui contestent la dynamique politique constitutionnelle en cours, on montrera pourquoi le processus révolutionnaire a échoué dans la production de cet espace libéré et digne projeté pendant sa phase initiale de libération

(Witte) instellingen : van congolisering naar dekolonisering

Voor veel kunstinstellingen geldt ‘diversiteit’ nu als de hoogste prioriteit, maar in de praktijk lijkt dat in het Vlaamse kunstenveld nog weinig fundamenteel te veranderen. Misschien omdat het antwoord veeleer neerkomt op ‘congolisering’ en ‘dekolonisering’ dan op diversiteit? De sleutel voor verandering ligt in een veel genereuzere houding van (witte) instellingen tegenover de vele informele werkingen voor wie de grootstedelijke realiteit geen fictie is