« The paper returns to its tree . »
Media: Installation , Drawing , Field Investigation
Themes : Living Matter , Body
For several years, I have been collecting natural elements during my walks — in forests, oases, mountains, and orchards — and bringing them back with me. Remnants, flowers, branches, seeds. And with every walk, nature always offers me a surprise.
Back in the studio, I sort, catalogue, and assemble. Paper figures that I draw and cut out become three-dimensional simply by being detached from the sheet. I combine them with natural elements — pressed flowers, branches, seeds — to create hybrid assemblages: half-character, half-plant. I sew, glue, and weave together the possible connection I am myself trying to create between fauna and flora. An almost impossible quest for harmony.
The work is concerned with habitat and scale. The characters seek to find their way back into a natural environment — or to create a new one. An isolated branch can become a home. Our perception changes when scale changes. A plant element is deliberately grafted onto the body. A lost harmony is sought. A place within nature is to be found.
The installation at Galerie A. Gorgi was conceived as a cabinet of curiosities — a large worktable, similar to the one in my studio, but turned vertically. Raw natural elements were combined with assemblages and framed works containing dried flowers and figures. Everything seemed to emerge from the wall, surrounding the viewer. I wanted to make the process visible, not just the final result. Each element of nature, detached from its original context, was relocated within this mental forest.
Part of this installation naturally found its way into Les Jardins de mon père — as if it had already been planted there, waiting.
In Canada, during my residency in Montréal in 2025, I brought these cut-out characters with me. I looked for habitats for them in the forests I visited and photographed their encounters with nature.
The paper returns to its tree.
Medium / Date
Assemblages, paper sculptures, pressed flowers, collected natural elements, framed works.
Galerie A. Gorgi, Tunis, 2023. Montréal residency, 2025.
→ See also : Within Reach — When the Trees Whispe — Stroll along the river — My Father’s Gardens