The winner of the SAM Prize for Contemporary Art « Aïcha Snoussi » unveils the civilization of the Tchechs at the Museum of the Zinsou Foundation in Ouidah

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She who ended up designing a kind of visual reference of counter-information exhibits until March 14, 2022 at the Museum of Ouidah his exploration on one of the least known civilizations, or totally obscure to highlight forgotten stories, eradicated, stifled drowned under water or because their stories are communicated in another way.

Aïcha Snoussi and the archaeological mission LIXE are in the process of revealing one of them: that of the Tchechs, a strange, itinerant African civilization, traces of which have been found off the island of Zembra in Tunisia, as well as on the shore of Ouidah.

The winner of the SAM Prize for Contemporary Art « Aïcha Snoussi » unveils the civilization of the Tchechs at the Museum of the Zinsou Foundation in Ouidah
The winner of the SAM Prize for Contemporary Art « Aïcha Snoussi » unveils the civilization of the Tchechs at the Museum of the Zinsou Foundation in Ouidah

This civilization has a set of practices, customs, knowledge and cults that the Lixe mission perpetuates through this exhibition in an obligation of transmission to future humans. Transmission that is done through gestures, installations, sounds, encounters and a lot of game plans that initiate the undetectable memory. This civilization, linked to the faction of the ocean, just like that of the sun, has a specific language, the one that cannot be pierced with the language. 

Its tone is vermania, blue-green, and the four elements are unavoidable. The Tchechs are neither men, nor women, nor man-women. Bodies are unlimited conceivable outcomes, as are sexual practices around objects.

The winner of the SAM Prize for Contemporary Art « Aïcha Snoussi » unveils the civilization of the Tchechs at the Museum of the Zinsou Foundation in Ouidah

Each space here implements a specific practice that is thousands of years old, but which is only realized through elements of the present, as a key to entry. The historical backdrop of the Chekhs is concretized and brought to life through the items presented. Each piece tells this story in a more structured way than the words of a book.

Lixe and Aisha Snoussi have reacted and sent bodies to convey a 3000 year old message. A message that comes from the depths, that can be traveled between the layers, in the caves. A strange message communicated by our predecessors, cherished between the banks.

Aïcha Snoussi

The winner of the SAM Prize for Contemporary Art « Aïcha Snoussi » unveils the civilization of the Tchechs at the Museum of the Zinsou Foundation in Ouidah

Born in 1989, in Tunis. Lives and works in Paris.

Aïcha Snoussi is a graduate of the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-arts de Tunis and of the Sorbonne University.

Graver of formation, the drawing with the black ink is in the center of its practices. From the fresco in situ to the installation of notebooks, drawing is considered as a device of exposure and deconstruction – created around queer and feminist fictions.  

« Anticodexxx », « Le livre des anomalies » or « undefined scrolls » are projects of anti-knowledge, challenging established norms and the dominant idea by making others conceivable fantasy.

Using fiction, the capabilities of reference works and in situ experimentation, drawing is reflected as an activity that will strive to cut through entrenched things and information, such as norms of orientation, body and sexuality.

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