Oasis Days, Focus Gabès, curated by Fatma Kilani
« I had promised my husband I would cook mloukhia for our 10th wedding anniversary. I still hadn't done it. »
Media : Artist Book, Field Investigation, Participatory
Themes : Food ,Memory & Disappearance , Living Matter
This is where it all began. With an unfulfilled promise—and the question that came with it: Will mloukhia still be here tomorrow?
In Tunisia, on the front line of climate change and human choices that are putting living systems under increasing pressure, water and food are becoming uncertain resources. Invited by Focus Gabès, I travelled to the Chénini oasis to meet those who cultivate the land—to understand how mloukhia makes its way from seed to plate, and what determines whether it will still have a place in our markets tomorrow.
What I found was a fragile chain: water stress, industrial pollution, pesticides, chemical companies, the rising cost of labour, the loss of ancestral knowledge, and the plant’s own vulnerability. If just one link breaks, there may be no mloukhia tomorrow.
The project emerged from field research: listening, collecting stories, documenting the experiences of growers, and observing ancestral practices surrounding a plant so deeply intertwined with Tunisian identity. At the end of the journey, I learned to prepare mloukhia the Gabès way.
The research resulted in a limited-edition artist’s book. Each copy contains mloukhia seeds, so that you, too, can grow it at home, on a small scale. You now know what you are holding in your hands.
The residency’s closing event at Résidence K in Gabès was an opportunity to present the artist’s book to local residents, followed by a conversation with farmers from the region. The exchange concluded with a tasting of mloukhia, carefully prepared by Saadia in the traditional Gabès style.
Medium / Date:
Artist’s book, limited edition · Exhibition — Oasis Days, Focus Gabès, 2025 · With the support of the Swiss Embassy in Tunisia, La Boîte_ Un lieu d’art contemporain, Attijari Bank Tunisie, Fatales, Hicha Joy and Danseurs Citoyens Sud.
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