Hela Djobbi a visual artist and conservator-restorer of cultural property.
INTERVIEW
Why do you think it is important to support younger artists?
“For me, this is not a choice. We have no choice but to support and follow the different artistic approaches. I don’t think there is a categorization of young artists. Any process of artistic creation is an experience and an approach that generates a product. This product can be the result of various choices and orientations. What I think I bring to this ongoing experience is to facilitate choices and save time by sharing my own experience and what I think have been mistakes that I would advise to avoid. This allows, in my opinion, to broaden perspectives and enrich the ongoing creative process.”
How did your collective experiences, both as a professor and an artist, change your perception of art throughout the years?
“My perception of art began to change during my years of study in Fine Arts. By opening up to international contemporary artistic practices and new modes of expression that we were not familiar with in Tunisia, my vision of art began to develop. Then through my experience as a teacher, I was able to see the gap that existed between international contemporary art and Tunisian artistic practices. My approach was to orient students to what was happening in the world and the different modes of artistic expression that were evolving all the time. This approach may have offered some students the opportunity to develop their ideas by broadening their fields of practice. Finally, having studied art conservation and restoration, I became interested in this new aspect that art acquires by becoming part of the collective heritage and history of society. The artwork creates an identity and a dimension much larger than the work being made in the studio or even in the initial idea that germinated in the head of the artist.”
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
2020 | Tunis.tn | National Library of Tunisia | “Ecriture, Peinture”
2020 | Rades.tn | Safia Farhat Museum, Center of Performing Arts of Rades | “Paysage.”
2014 | Tunis.tn | National Library of Tunisia | “A Dire d’Elles.”
2013 | Tunis.tn | National Library of Tunisia | “Face, culture and identity.”
2012 | Carthage.tn | Institute of Higher Commercial Studies of Carthage | “Tableaux Noirs.”
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Tunis.tn | National Bardo Museum
Tunis.tn | Institute of Fine Arts
FORMATION
2019 | Tours.fr | École supérieure d’art et de design | conservation-restoration of cultural assets | Higher National diploma in art expression
2015 – 2016 | Tours.fr | École supérieure d’art et de design | conservation-restoration of cultural assets | National diploma in art expression
2007 | Tunis.tn | Institut supérieur des beaux-arts de Tunis | Fine Arts | Master of Arts Sciences and Techniques
2005 | Tunis.tn | Institut supérieur des beaux-arts de Tunis | Fine Arts (sculpture) | Diploma
