Lecce, January 19, 2024: the spotlight shines on the “Creature di Sabbia” exhibition in Lecce, marking the culmination of an ambitious artistic project. This endeavour aims to promote gender equality, address violated rights, and empower women in the Mediterranean region, twelve years after the Arab Spring.
Financed by the Puglia Region - Department of Welfare, with state resources from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, “Creature di Sabbia” is a collaborative project led by the Agenzia per il Patrimonio Culturale Euromediterraneo. It involves partnerships with the Positivo Diretto Association, the Polo Bibliomuseale di Lecce, the Lecce Municipality, and the N.O.I Salento Association.
The project began last May with an intensive artist residency focused on gender equality and women’s rights, particularly in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Four artists of Arab and Middle Eastern origin, residing in Italy for study or work, along with their peers from similar backgrounds, engaged in profound exploration and creative processes. Their work spanned various disciplines, including narrative, painting, design, photography, cinema, and visual arts.
The four young artists – two Iranians, one Tunisian, and one Moroccan – now take center stage in a unique exhibition. Their personal experiences and artistic universes come to life through their creations.
Inspired by the Ben Jelloun’s novel The Sand Child, the artists embody adaptability, resilience, and the ability to redefine themselves despite external pressures and their "Creature di Sabbia" experience, guided by international experts and project curators Andrea Laudisa and Alice Caracciolo, resulted in four refined artworks, transcending cultural boundaries and speaking a universal language rooted in shared humanity.
In fact, according to the curators of the exhibition, <The sand creature of Ben Jelloun's novel, from which this project takes its inspiration, is a changeable, moldable creature, capable of redefining itself and resisting external pressures with leathery strength. It was easy, therefore, to observe a strong symbolic convergence between the novel's character and the four artists in the exhibition: the Tunisian Rafika Ferchichi, the Moroccan Salma Hilmi and the Iranian Khathereh Safajoo and Mehrnoosh Roshanaei. Over a six-month period, guided by internationally renowned experts and project curators, the artists formalized four works they were already developing. Through a plurality of expressive languages, the artists engaged in a rediscovery of their cultural roots and confronted the perceptual boundaries of diversity, speaking a universal language.
The exhibition, free to the public from January 19 to February 9, immerses visitors in a powerful and emotionally impactful experience. Video and sound installations, along with multimedia elements, invite reflection and connection. A central installation features a verse from the Quran: “God created humans from a single soul.” This powerful appeal for unity against gender-based violence underscores that every individual, regardless of gender, is an essential part of our collective existence."
Opening and Closing Hours
Monday-Sunday
h.9.30-12.30 - h.16.30 /20.00
THE ARTISTS
Mehrnoosh Roshanaei
Mehrnoosh Roshanaei was born and raised in Tehran, Iran, and currently lives and works in Bologna. She studied visual arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Vienna, and Düsseldorf, where she had the privilege of being mentored by renowned artists such as Monica Bonvicini, Marina Grizinic, Davide Rivalta, and Luca Bertolo. Throughout her artistic career, she has received several awards, including the Monza Biennale in 2021, the Nocivelli Award in Brescia, the Zucchelli Award in 2021, and the Young Art Award from the Golinelli Foundation in 2020 in Bologna. Her art expresses her identity as an Iranian woman and the complex experiences that accompany immigration. Through her work, she challenges preconceived notions of identity and highlights the beauty and depth derived from diversity.
Khatereh Safajoo
Khatereh Safajoo is a scenographer and multimedia artist who specializes in installation and 3D art. Born in 1992 in Tehran, she began her artistic studies there and obtained her first degree in Theater from the University of Art in Tehran in 2016. She continued her studies with a second degree in Scenography for Theater and completed her Master’s degree in Scenography for Cinema and Television in July 2022, both at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin. Her work focuses on abstraction and reimagining environments and spaces while evoking memories and emotions from nostalgic days of the past through her art.
Rafika Ferchichi
Rafika Ferchichi was born in Tunis in 1978 and is currently enrolled in the specialist biennium with a focus on new technologies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bari. Her artistic research can be described as versatile, utilizing sculpture, installation, and performance systematically. In her work, she employs a lexicon related to the feminine world, drawing from her childhood experiences with her mother and grandmother, who were carpet weavers. She chooses to participate in an unspoken pact where women, through textile work and a language of symbols, tell their stories and confront the struggles of life. The carpet becomes the central theme of her work, playing with other materials that are both humble and imposing, such as asphalt. She creates her formal space, her home, and her diary where she continuously records her intimate reflections.
Salma Hilmi
Salma Hilmi is a third-year student in the undergraduate program at the Accademia Albertina delle Belle Arti in Turin. She is a Graphic Designer and Visual Designer with foundational experience in Web and Product Design. Over the past few years, she has successfully completed every assigned project, overcoming various obstacles with her determination and creativity. Her projects often communicate themes that society sometimes treats superficially or that remain invisible to our eyes. She is particularly interested in exploring the integration of Moroccan culture, her birth heritage, with Italian culture, her adopted homeland. She has participated in various competitions during her academic career and has won awards outside the school context, including the “European School Competition - XXX Edition: Is there life in Europe? Shadows of our future.”
CREDITS
Event Management: Euro-Mediterranean Cultural Heritage Agency - (info@agenziaeuromed.it ; segreteria@agenziaeuromed.it )
Project Manager: Mauro Martina ( mauro.martina@agenziaeuromed.it )
Scientific/cultural project manager: Ettore Bambi ( ebambi@gmail.com )
Curators Art Residency and Exhibition: Andrea Laudisa and Alice Caracciolo (and.laudisa@gmail.com; alicecaracciolo@aol.com )
Press Office: Gioia Perrone, Emanuela Perrone (393 912 2997 - 347 6717597)
Graphic design: Valerio Nicoletti / Grupppo (valerio@grupppo.com)
