La Gazelle | Page 120

rencontres encounters ‫لقـــــاءات‬ portfolio I portfolio I ‫برتفوليــو‬ views of tunisia Fakhri el Ghezal Photographer, videographer and visual artist, Fakhri el Ghezal was born in 1981 in Akouda, in the Tunisian Sahel region. With an old Nikon film camera that his father bought from the village photographer, he settles in Tunis to study at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts. After four years, he obtains a master in visual arts, specialty engraving, and afterwards gets a Master’s in Art and Communication from the Institute of Fine Arts in Nabeul. He is a young photographer who seduces with his work sometimes quirky and filled with humor, sometimes serious and captivating. In 2006, he receives the third prize of the competition organized by the Arabian Tunis Bank and participates in the 4th International Photographic Encounters in Ghar El Melh. Between 2006 and 2013, he makes several artistic works, such as the series “The Abdelabasset Patchwork” and «Otage” in 2007, the video “El Chanty” in 2009, the installation “Halkoum” in Dream City in 2010, the series “SIDI(S)” in 2011 and “Chokran Ya Siadat Al Rais” and “Weld Men” in 2012.His works are displayed in international exhibitions and festivals, such as the Bamako African Photography Festival, the African Cinema Festival in Tarifa, Spain, the Halles of Schaerbeek in Brussels, the Awaln’art Festival in Marrakech as well as the Abou Dhabi Art Fair. In 2013, he takes part in POLITICS, a travelling collective exhibition at the gallery Talmart, in Paris. He is an associated artist at the Siwa Plateform and a founding member of the collective Politics in Tunis, which presented its first exhibition in 2012. Since 2012 Fakhri el Guezal has presented his photographs in various galleries, from Marseille to Brussels and Paris. In 2014, he presents two series during the exhibition “Here and...“ at the New Museum in New York and “Survivances“, a collective project with artists Atef Mataallah and Nidhal Chamekh where he presents the series “Chott Maria“ at the Elmarsa gallery in Tunis. I In progress © Fakhri el Ghazel La Gazelle 60 I 122