Duality of a sociocultural aesthetic
It was on the occasion of the recent opening of the Ahmed Bey Palace, in La Marsa (on the Saf-Saf side), that an exhibition dedicated to monuments, buildings and palaces, works of Italian architects, entrepreneurs and craftsmen, and located in Tunis, was offered to the public on Thursday, October 9, in the presence of the initiators, and more particularly the initiators, of this project.
Organized by the “Nous Tous” association, the “Archives of the Memory of the Italians of Tunisia” (AMIT), the “Laboratory of Maghreb Archeology and Architecture” (LAAM) and the Dante Alighieri Cultural Center of Tunisia, with the support of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, this exhibition will continue until October 12. It will then travel to the National School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tunis (ENAU), from October 13 to 19, then to El Teatro d’El Mechtel, from October 21 to 31. It reveals the Italian influence in the architecture of the city of Tunis and its surroundings.
As a prelude, the representatives of these institutions – Ms. Silva Finzi, curator of the exhibition; Rabaâ Ben Achour, from the “Nous Tous” association; Beya Laâbidi, director of LAAM and historian – as well as researchers Ahmed Saâdaoui (archaeologist and professor of history at the University of Manouba), Sabrina Ghattas and Rosy Candiani (writer and professor of history of theater and melodrama), held a press briefing in order to clarify the main points, the ins and outs of this cultural event of scale.
What you need to know at first glance is that the Italians, from the 16th century to the beginning of the 20th century, were much more numerous than other communities, such as the French or the Maltese. Emigrating massively to Tunisia for economic, political and other reasons, they were well received – and still are – occupying multiple functions, integrating into Tunisian society and becoming owners of agricultural land and industrial and manufacturing establishments.
From generation to generation, Tunisia will be significantly influenced, particularly in the field of architecture. Many of our residential neighborhoods in modern Tunis or the “European City”, outside the Medina, present works of a baroque and rococo character, whether in religious buildings, Beylic palaces, the homes and residences of notables, simple buildings, or even rural habitats.
It should be noted that a good part of this Italian community, notably the landowners, had also settled around the Medjerda, in the neighboring villages.
Ms. Silva Finzi gave an overview of this initiative and its objective: to discover the specificities of the Italian influence in Tunisia in the field of architecture and decoration, as well as the exchanges which have been established between the two communities. She specified that one of the Italian notables, Giuseppe Rappo, who made a name for himself in the country, had married his daughter to Mahmoud Bey, thereby illustrating this duality of cultural heritage.
The exhibition itself is a corpus composed of 13 panels, in the form of photographs, revealing the presence and depth of the Italian footprint both in the city of Tunis and its surroundings and in the villages of the lower Medjerda valley. There are building facades, decorative elements, earthenware tile patterns… The set of buildings was selected from the thousand monuments that Sabrina Ghattas had visited and photographed, including, among others, Tourbet El Bey, the Halfaouine Mosque and the Hammouda Pasha Mosque, known for their rich baroque decor. Everything is accompanied by explanatory texts from researchers, as well as biographies of architects and entrepreneurs born and having worked in Tunisia.
It is a very rich exhibition, which reflects these ancestral links between the two neighboring countries and the two communities which have shared entire sections of the history of this Mare Nostrumthis Mediterranean which has always brought us together.
