Interview with Ziad Helmi Zitoun (Tunisia)

SOCIAL REALITY THROUGH ARTISTIC CONCEPT

"I’m always turning around the idea of border, the wall, the line. Adding textures helps me to explain feelings about these concepts. Using rock textures, iron fence and wall pictures; give me the chance to transfer the feelings of someone who is in front of a wall. I wish to express feelings of someone in the situation of crossing a border. I try to express the difficulties that you can feel when you see something locked and when you try to overpass this situation." (Ziad Helmi Zitoun)

IAM: Can you tell us more about your artistic career?

Ziad Helmi Zitoun: I started my activities with experimental video works. Processing with music and video cuts and following my experimentation with video painting ideas. I participate in local exhibitions of videos art. My first experimentation works, carry me to explore about, video- dance, and digital and visual arts. I started developing photo manipulations and it brings me the idea to start using photography, mixed media and installations. In 2008, I started collaborating with “Proyecto Aur”. This artist group gives me the chance to show my visual art in collective exhibitions. In the present, I will like to develop my career around some ideas about Mediterranean Contemporary Art. Following the project named Mediterranean South - West - East- North. In my way of thinking (for me), I always tried to create visual arts, mixing pictures and motions which it generates ideas and aesthetic feelings about migrant life.

IAM: Your work obviously has a strong social and political message. Can you tell us something more about that?

Ziad Helmi Zitoun: Yes, my work always carries a social and political message. My inspiration turn around topics of migrants rights, trans-borders movements, refugees history… those artworks speaks about human rights and human condition of people in movement. During my life, in my personal experiences and as a tunisian immigrants child living in Europe, all these topics are important for me and I need to take care about them.
For me, Human Rights starts with migrants people, I wish to say that a lot of emigrants can be considerate as refugees. People escape from wars, dictator political government or economic misery. My message for the Occidental people is The Human Rights, this starts with immigrant people. They must take care of them as refugees, and basically considerate the immigrant people as humans they are. Since the 11/09 event, the immigrant rights have been locked by anti-terrorist politics. Occidental societies have reduced fundamental human rights of moving, with the excuse of fight terrorism.

The rest of the article you can read in the magazine.