شمس الدين العوني

The 20th International University Theater Festival in Monastir runs from August 8 to 16, 2026, bringing together about 350 students and theater groups from 15 countries, including 11 Arab countries. Organized by Tunisia’s Office of University Services for the Center and the University Cultural Center of Monastir, the festival features daily performances, artistic workshops, an intellectual seminar, and other activities. Tunisian officials presented the event as part of efforts to strengthen university services, support student cultural development, discover theatrical talent, and promote international exchange.

Tunisian visual artist Dalila Al-Ayadi participated in the eighth Turkish-Arab Artists’ Gathering in Istanbul, held under the theme “Colors Paint Stories.” Organized with the involvement of Turkish and Tunisian artistic associations, the Turkish Arab Art House and Rami Library, the event brought together artists from several countries through exhibitions, Arabic calligraphy, handicrafts, discussions, cultural activities and music. Al-Ayadi’s paintings draw on nature, places, flowers, memory and personal emotion, presenting art as a human bridge and a source of beauty, affection and cultural connection. The gathering’s organizers emphasized strengthening artistic relations between Turkey and the Arab world and encouraging interaction among artists.

Tunisian visual artist Sharifa Al-Salhi, originally from Gafsa, developed an early passion for drawing and painting through her engagement with the heritage of southern Tunisia. After further training in Korba in painting on silk and pottery, she produced works inspired by traditional women, architecture, motherhood and local crafts. Her participation in local, national, international and online exhibitions includes the 2025 international exhibition in Sidi Bou Said. She is now preparing a solo exhibition in a Tunisian capital art gallery, viewing art as a way to express personal feelings and promote cultural, human and aesthetic values.

The Association of Cultural Events in Fouchana, led by visual artist Anwar al-Arfaoui, has launched a two-year ecological arts project in partnership with cultural, civic, municipal, and environmental organizations. The initiative uses artistic activities to raise awareness of cleanliness and environmental protection while improving public spaces through community participation. Its inaugural program, scheduled for July 24–26, 2026, includes a cleanup campaign, a challenge involving four waste containers, discussions with children and young people, sorting and recycling activities, and the creation of a multidisciplinary environmental culture club. Further events, workshops, competitions, and exhibitions will continue across Fouchana and the wider Ben Arous area through 2027.

Tunisian visual artist Taieb Zioud was invited to exhibit his 80-by-60-centimeter mosaic work “The City” at the 16th International Arts Industries Exhibition in Shanghai, which runs from June 11 to July 12, 2026, with participants from about 34 countries. Shanghai Art Collection Museum director Muquing Hu honored Zioud in recognition of his artistic experience and the aesthetic and humanistic qualities of his work. The mosaic received strong praise and is expected to be displayed later in another Shanghai art gallery. Zioud thanked the museum and exhibition organizers, emphasizing art’s role in connecting peoples and civilizations, while further exhibitions in Tunisia and abroad are anticipated.

Tunisian artist Amina Bouslama’s solo exhibition “My Secret Gardens” at Concept Store in Tunis’s City of Culture presents a visual dialogue between the self and nature. Running from 21 May to 6 June 2026 under the supervision of Tunisia’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs and organized by Dar al-Funun, the exhibition features paintings in oil and acrylic across varied subjects, including landscapes, architecture and women. The works combine figurative, realistic and surrealist approaches to explore dreams, inner life and artistic refuge. Bouslama’s participation in exhibitions in Tunisia, France, Jordan and Morocco is also highlighted.

Tunisian self-taught painter Mohamed Ben El Hadi Cherif has transformed his home in Megrine, Ben Arous, into a studio, workshop and documentary museum displaying works accumulated over years. He also records visits, cultural events and artistic activities through photographs, video and writing. Artists, critics, intellectuals, politicians and former culture ministers have visited the space, while Cherif has participated in individual, group and Union of Tunisian Plastic Artists exhibitions. His work spans raw art, abstraction, contemporary art and unusual figurative approaches, with recurring themes including women, hope and humanity. Critics Habib Bida and Ali Zenaidi emphasize the spontaneity, passion and autodidactic character of his practice, while writer and critic Ali Louati highlights the diversity of his techniques and the possibility of developing a coherent aesthetic direction.

Tunisian visual artist and researcher Najah al-Mansouri is participating in a collective exhibition at Sousse Cultural Complex with ten paintings. Her works explore the female body, anxiety, suffocation and psychological pressure through vivid colors and a recurring technique of erasure. The exhibition reflects her broader search for aesthetic and emotional expression, using deletion, fragmented forms and layered color to question notions of artistic completion. The article also outlines her academic training and continuing participation in Tunisian art exhibitions and cultural organizations.

The article examines Tunisian artist Salma Samawi’s exhibition “Femmes en Fleurs: entre Résilience et Douceur,” held at Dar Sebastian in Hammamet. Through paintings combining women and flowers, Samawi presents femininity as a space of beauty, tenderness, reflection, and resilience. Her work is interpreted as a quiet artistic response to a violent and troubled world marked by conflict, destruction, emotional hardness, and the erosion of values. The exhibition seeks to affirm human dignity, hope, peace, and aesthetic sensitivity through a distinctly personal visual language.

The 22nd National Forum for Self-Taught Women Artists in Visual Expression opened in Monastir, Tunisia, running from 23 to 25 April 2026. Organized by the Cultural Complex of Monastir under the supervision of the Regional Delegation for Cultural Affairs, the event brings together women artists from across Tunisia and supports individual artistic initiatives through workshops, testimonials, training sessions and exchanges with professional artists. The forum, active for more than two decades, has helped emerging artists develop their skills and gain visibility in Tunisia’s visual-arts scene. The program concludes with the announcement of results and awards for the top three participants.

Tunisian artist and researcher Arabia Masli Ghribi is preparing a solo exhibition while continuing to combine visual art, university teaching and academic research. Her doctoral dissertation examined Tunisia through the watercolors of French Orientalist Charles Lallemand, whose late-19th-century works documented Tunisian cities, architecture, clothing, customs and everyday life, though the article notes the colonial context and possible biases behind that depiction. Ghribi has also organized and participated in exhibitions and scholarly events focused on preserving and appreciating Tunisian heritage.

The article presents Tunisian visual artist Ikram Boujelbane al-Qarqouri’s painting as a search for beauty, wonder and emotional expression through color, light, flowers, natural forms and varied figures. It describes her self-directed artistic development, her training in Sfax since 1994, and her engagement with realist, impressionist, modern and contemporary traditions. Boujelbane argues that visual art refines aesthetic sensibility, documents history and contemporary issues, and can address subjects such as freedom, war, oppression, migration, customs and identity. The article also reviews her exhibitions in Tunisia and Morocco, including a work acquired by the Tunisian state, and notes her preparation for a forthcoming solo exhibition.

Tunisian visual artist Aida Al-Kashou Kharouf discusses a two-day master class in Tunis on art valuation, auction-house practices and the global art market. The training, organized by Archivart and led by art historian Rida Moomni, explained how Christie's and Sotheby's build value, manage primary and secondary-market transactions, conduct private sales, finance collections and market Middle Eastern and North African art internationally. The discussion reviews major auction records, including Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi and high-value private collections, while noting that several figures cited were estimates or workshop references rather than officially published auction data. Archivart is presented as a platform founded by Wafa Gabsi Tekali and Khalil Liwan to preserve contemporary-art archives, expand public access and help Tunisian, African and Arab artists gain international visibility.

Tunisian mosaic artist Taieb Zioud continues an international artistic career spanning Tunisia, France, Japan and Saudi Arabia. He presented three mosaic works at the “Tunisian Radiance” event in Paris and has previously participated in exhibitions in Osaka and Saudi Arabia. Working with craftsmen in his Djerba workshop, Zioud develops mosaic pieces that combine ornamentation and abstraction for paintings, murals, décor and public spaces. His work also addresses Palestinian solidarity through “The Olive Branch, Symbol of Peace,” while his broader practice seeks to renew mosaic art beyond traditional historical and decorative forms.

The Monastir Cultural Complex hosted the 29th edition of the Mohamed Salama Children’s Theatre Days from January 31 to February 6, 2026. Organized with the Association of the Theatrical Revival in Monastir and supported by the regional cultural authorities, the event featured children’s plays, performances, workshops, an art exhibition and a puppet display. Families attended performances including The Three Little Dwarfs, Beautiful Imagination, Guardians of the Earth and Queen of the Night, with the program concluding with participant awards and workshop honors. The event also commemorated Mohamed Salama through puppets and archival photographs, reinforcing the cultural complex’s role in promoting children’s arts in Monastir.

Tunisia’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art has opened the second National Visual Arts Salon, running through February 24, 2026. The exhibition features 69 works selected from 155 submissions across seven disciplines, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, engraving, textile art, photography and installations. Organized to support emerging artists, encourage exchange among artists from across Tunisia, and promote visual arts, the salon also includes discussions, workshops and activities on intellectual property and traditional pottery. Its nationwide participation reflects the Ministry of Cultural Affairs’ emphasis on cultural decentralization, while a public acquisitions committee will select notable works to expand state art collections.

The twelfth Sharjah Arabic Poetry Festival brings together more than 80 poets, critics and media professionals from 19 countries, with Egypt’s Ahmed Balboula as the honored figure. The program includes poetry readings across Sharjah and Kalba, awards for Arabic poetry criticism and the Golden Rhymes competition, book launches and signing sessions, and a two-part symposium on emotional trends and their transformations in Arabic poetry. The festival concludes on January 11 with a poetry evening at the Kalba Literary Council, reflecting Sharjah’s effort to extend its cultural programming across the emirate.

The article offers a critical reading of Tunisian artist and academic Asmaa Abdellaoui’s exhibition “The Archaeology of Memory,” held at the Higher Institute of Arts and Crafts of Sidi Bouzid. It interprets clay and ceramics not merely as artistic media but as material records of time, identity and collective memory. Using installations and sculptures made through techniques including raku, repetition, enlargement and material transformation, Abdellaoui connects memories of Sidi Bouzid and Siliana with personal experience, academic formation and ecological concerns. The exhibition treats memory as dynamic rather than fixed, while presenting the earth as a shared origin deserving ethical care and protection. Named works include “Dreams and Specters,” “The Millstone of Time,” “Wheat Field,” “Alienation and Estrangement,” “Seeds of the Earth” and “Mechanical Memory.”

The Tunis City Book Fair transformed Habib Bourguiba Avenue into an open cultural space from December 18, 2025, to January 3, 2026. The program includes book displays, literary and intellectual meetings, poetry, book signings, workshops, music, theater and activities for children and families. Siliana serves as guest of honor, presenting its archaeological sites, crafts, publications, innovations and cultural heritage, while the fair also commemorates the magazine Al-Ithaf and its late founder Abdelkader al-Hani. The event is portrayed as an inclusive, digitally aware initiative intended to attract students, children, researchers, authors and wider audiences, with ambitions to develop into a regional and eventually international cultural gathering.

The House of Poetry in Kairouan concluded the tenth Kairouan Festival of Arabic Poetry at the Star of Tunis palace in Sidi Bou Said on 20 December 2025. Organized in cooperation with Sharjah’s Department of Culture and Tunisia’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the two-day festival brought together poets, critics and writers from Tunisia, Algeria and Mauritania. The program included poetry readings, a documentary screening, an exhibition marking the house’s tenth anniversary, and a seminar on contemporary issues in the Arabic poetic canon. Director Jamila al-Majri reported that the institution had organized more than 450 cultural events involving around 1,300 participants over the past decade. The festival also announced the Maghreb competition results, with Afrah al-Jabali winning first prize and Jamal Amaimi taking second place.

Siliana will host the third Abdelkader al-Hani Forum for Thought on December 13–14, 2025, under the theme “From Thought to Horizon.” Organized by the Siliana Regional Delegation for Cultural Affairs and the Al-Ithaf Cultural Association, the event commemorates writer and publisher Abdelkader al-Hani and highlights the 40-year history of his literary magazine, Al-Ithaf. The program includes an intellectual seminar, a magazine exhibition, a magazine-design workshop, a poetry evening, music, presentations of youth and community initiatives, and video testimonies about the magazine and its founder. A dialogue on the publication’s history and future, an honorary award, and forum recommendations will conclude the event, which also addresses Al-Ithaf’s efforts to regain its publishing presence and its contribution to Tunisian and Arab literary life.