The Circle builds upon Bouchra Khalili!s ten years investigation into the Movement of Arab Workers (MTA) and its theatre groups ‘Al Assifa’ (The Tempest in Arabic) and ‘Al Halaka’ (for the Circle, the Assembly, in Arabic), evidenced in her film The Tempest Society (2017, premiered at documenta 14), a book of the same title (Book Works, 2019), and the sound work An Audio Family Album (2020).

The Circle unfolds the complex constellation of events and people that gave birth to the Movement of Arab Workers and its theater groups in 1973 and that culminated with the candidacy of « Djellali Kamal » - a pseudonym for an anonymous member of Al Assifa - to the French presidential election in 1974. Brought together, the multi-layered stories and the interwoven media deployed in The 

Circle (video, 16mm film, photography, performances, storytelling, and archival material) pose the questions: How a marginalized group can make itself visible? How do we inherit a suppressed heritage? How do we transmit it?

▪ Meeting with the artist Bouchra Khalili, moderated by the curator Hoor Al Qasimi

24 September 2023 at 11am 

Le 15 - Central Tunis (map)

Free - in English, with French interpreting