On Djerba, the island of dreams, the village of Erriadh became a true open-air museum, unveiled on 20 September 2014. Through July and August 2014, 150 artists of 30 different nationalities set to work on it — a dream carried by Mehdi Ben Cheikh, founder of the Itinérance gallery and the man behind Djerbahood.
Mehdi Ben Cheikh, tell us a little about yourself
“I studied fine art at the Sorbonne, Paris I, then taught it for 8 years. I spent my first 20 years in Tunisia and I have lived in Paris for 20 — half and half, like my parents: my mother is French, my father Tunisian. After Tour Paris 13, the most widely covered cultural event of 2013, I wanted a concept that would turn that kind of coverage towards Tunisia. Djerbahood is unique. It had never been done anywhere else in the world, and it keeps street art free and open to everyone.”
Why did so few Tunisian media cover it at first?
“Tour Paris 13 generated 1,800 articles around the world. 15 days before the Djerbahood opening, we had already passed 500: Vogue, Le Nouvel Obs, Le Monde, The Guardian, and today La Sultane. Djerba lent itself to an open-air museum, with a route, a staging and precise rules — and above all, nothing happens without the permission of each resident.”
How did your commitment to street art begin?
“In 2004 I opened Itinérance in Paris, the first gallery devoted to street art, at a time when the movement still meant vandalism to most people. Unlike most gallerists, who come out of business school, I come from an art school and a training in art history. A gallerist, to my mind, does more than sell work: he stands with a movement at its beginning and helps it write its history — the way the Salon des Refusés did, in its day, for the Impressionists.”
Where does his passion for art come from?
“It comes from my training, and from growing up inside it — both my parents taught for 40 years at the Beaux-Arts in Tunis — so yes, I had an instinct for it. From when I was very small, my mother took me to every opening. I went from one show to the next, one gallery to another, and I grew up on art history books for children, Picasso pour les enfants or Paul Klee pour les enfants.”
How does street art travel today?
“Someone makes a piece on a wall, photographs it, posts it online — and the whole world can find it. The stronger the work, the faster the specialist sites and blogs pick it up, and an artist can become an international name on the net. My aim is to build an Arab street art scene, not only a Tunisian one: I have backed El Seed, Chouf, Dabrou. Four years ago few people knew El Seed; today he counts among the great names of street art in the Arab world — to the point that people say simply ‘El Seed the artist’ rather than ‘the Tunisian artist’, just as nobody says ‘Murakami the Japanese artist’.”
Where does Tunisia stand in this international movement?
“Tunisia keeps a slight lead on the other Arab countries, even though its art market is close to non-existent despite 13 fine art schools. Morocco, with only 3 schools, does better on that front. Thanks to the internet, you can be in Tunisia and take part in an international movement in real time. There is no need to be in Paris or New York for that.”
On the lag of emerging art scenes in general, he does not soften the blow: “What I have seen is that everything touching this world, in emerging countries, often settles for mimicry and runs 30, even 40 years behind. It is not discovery, it is not creation in the hard sense; it is territory already explored — and that is the pity of it.”
How did the people of Erriadh receive the project?
“The reactions were positive. The residents did not even use the words ‘street art’ — they saw artists at work, contemporary art. There was some reluctance at the start, and it lifted as soon as the first pieces went up.”
And after Djerbahood?
At the time of the interview, Mehdi Ben Cheikh was already looking ahead: “Once the Djerbahood opening is behind us, we have something planned in Tunis with El Seed, but I will say no more for now. It will be a surprise. Tunisia has to move now, it must not wait for things to happen on their own — anyone with something to give has to move and try to push things forward.”
