Sunday, July 27

About this talk

Tunisia, once the heart of the Carthaginian empire, has been home to Jewish communities for over 2,000 years. Its central location at the crossroads of civilizations has brought diverse influences on food, culture, language, and identity. 

Rafram will guide us through the layered and complex history of Jewish life in Tunisia, which took a fateful turn in 1967 following the Six-Day War. He will also share what Jewish life looks like in Tunisia today, and discuss his work as a visual artist, which blends together biography and Jewish identity in contemporary Tunisian society.

About Rafram

Born on the island of Djerba off the coast of Tunisia, Rafram Chaddad is an artist whose photographs, films, and multi-media installations rethink the archive, migration narratives, and what it means to belong.

Working between Tunis and New York, Rafram's work reflects on his personal life experiences and comments on broader socio-political issues including migration and displacement, identity and belonging. Over the past twenty years, he's created dozens of short films and installations, which have been exhibited worldwide in cultural institutions, galleries, and museums, including:

Kunst im Tunnel, Dusseldorf; Kunstraum, New York; Kayu Lucie Fontaine Gallery, Bali; Lucie Fontaine, Milan; ArteEast foundation, New York; Halle 14, Leipzig; and Zalatimo, east Jerusalem. Chaddad has held solo shows at the Mucem Museum in Marseilles and the Maximilian Forum in Munich, among others.