It is rare that calligraphers and artists discuss their steps together. However, disciplines are mixed and paved the way for innovative steps.
There is a most famous and active Maghreb calligraphic school in Tunisia. Moreover, Tunisian calligraphs excel in all areas of work on the letter whether in the Farsi, Diwani or Coufic style.
Many calligraphs are thus gathered in the National Calligraphy Center which allows to continue learning and attracts many young people that this art inspires a lot. Installed in the medina, this center under the supervision of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, is located on rue Al Monastiri.
The Tunisian School of Calligraphy thus continues its progression and conceals more and more innovators like a Yassine Mtir or a Yasser Jradi whose major musical work makes us forget that he was an accomplished plastic artist and calligrapher. Likewise, the late Taoufik Rais combined his work as a filmmaker with the art of calligraphy of which he was one of the contemporary masters.
Among visual artists, the letter is often at the heart of their approach. Just think of the work of Abdelmajid Bekri, Amel Zaiem or Raouf Gara to find the germs of a reflection on the letter and the image.
With this in mind, NJA Mahdaoui is one of those who revolutionized the artists’ relationship to the letter. The work of this artist, while inspired by a confluence between the letter and the arabesque, leads to a particular universe which is also that of certain innovative calligraphers like a Messaoudi or a Naceur Khmir.
Similarly, Sleh Hamzaoui is one of those who, in the wake of the 1970s self -taught, invested this artistic field, producing a reference work entitled “Alif, Le Banquet des Lettres”. This book is a work of distortion of the letter as well as opening towards the pure and simple plasticity of the Arabic alphabet.
In this sense, it is remarkable to note that the sculptors also seized the Arab letter to give it a third dimension while using it for an ornamental reason in a contemporary monumental art which seeks its inspiration on the side of heritage.
Beyond that, the recurring question of the representation in Islam will naturally arise in this debate which should be exciting and open alternative perspectives in the relationship between calligraphers and visual artists.
A lazy reading of the work of the calligraphers confines them to the borders of art. However, their artistic function and their innovative research place them at the forefront of plastic universes. On the other hand, too often, calligraphs are content to reproduce, imitate, fix according to immutable canons.
It is this attitude that is a source of misunderstanding on their artistic vocation. Indeed, some artists only see in them the proponents of a frozen tradition and consider that only plastic practice is able to give new fields to a calligraphy in search of modernity.
