“Each of us needs the memory of the other — not out of compassion or charity, but for a new kind of lucidity within the process of Relation. And if we want to share in the world’s beauty, if we want to stand in solidarity with its suffering, we must learn to remember together.”
Édouard Glissant, A New Region of the World. Aesthetics I
Produced by the Seine-Maritime Department and first presented at the Abbey of Jumièges last summer, the collective exhibition “Slow and Steady Wears the Stone الدوام ينقب الرخام” brings together artists from the contemporary Tunisian scene. For the 6th edition of Menart Fair in Paris, a selection of works is shown beneath the glass roof of a former workshop in the Marais.
Its title, drawn from a Tunisian proverb — “Drop by drop, water eventually carves stone” — evokes the transformative power of modest, repeated gestures. Here, the artists turn away from grand narratives to explore micro-histories, fragments, popular or oral traditions. They probe the shadow zones of collective memory, between presence and erasure.
Their approach resembles a form of sensitive archaeology: excavating the strata of history, reactivating forgotten layers, revealing shifting realities. Through photography, video, textiles, embroidery, reverse glass painting, mosaic, or performance, they hybridize forms and reconnect with know-how often sidelined by Western art history.
These works give voice to marginalized figures, deconstruct colonial and patriarchal stereotypes, and weave ties between the personal and the political. Whether through ghostly archive assemblages, reinterpreted ritual costumes, or whispered fragments of conversations around threadwork, memory appears as fragmentary and elliptical, nourished as much by absence as by trace.
This focused selection extends the spirit of Jumièges: a meditation on what endures when the noise of History fades. Like Carthage in the writings of Édouard Glissant — the Martinican poet who made the ancient city an emblem of his concept of “creolization” — the artists affirm a relational identity, in perpetual recomposition, shaped by frictions, sedimentations, and fertile tensions. A sensitive response to the world’s fragmentation.
Program
Menart Fair 2025
Galerie Joseph, 116 rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris
Planning:
Saturday 25th October 2025: from noon to 8pm
Sunday 26th October 2025: from noon to 8pm
Monday 27th October 2025: from noon to 7pm
Opening:
Friday 24th October 2025: 6pm to 10pm (invitation VIP)
Daily VIP pre-opening from Saturday 25th to Monday 27th October 2025: 11am to noon (holders of VIP Passes)
Panel Talk:
Saturday 25th October 2025 from 2.30pm to 4pm
Contemporary creation in Tunisia with Victoria Jonathan, Wissem Barbouchi, Khadija Hamdi, Férielle Doulain-Zouari, Meriem Bouderbala, moderated by Zineb Soulaimani
Catalogue
Bilingual French-English publication in collaboration with Bao Books, a Tunisian publisher and editorial design studio.
Initially presented at Jumièges Abbey, this catalog will be available on site throughout the Menart Fair.
France:
📍Librairie Petite Égypte, 35 Rue des Petits Carreaux, 75002 Paris
📍Librairie Volume, 47 Rue de Notre Dame de Nazareth, 75003 Paris
📍Librairie Volume, 47 Rue de Notre Dame de Nazareth, 75003 Paris
📍Galerie Lilia Ben Salah, 5 Avenue de Delcassé, 75008 Paris
📍Cahier central, 26 Rue du Château d’Eau, 75010 Paris
📍Librairie Sans Titre, 2 Rue Auguste Barbier, 75011 Paris
📍Librairie du Palais, 142 La Canebière, 13001 Marseille
📍Librairie du Palais, 10 Rue du Plan de la Cour, 13200 Arles
Online/International:
Contact menyi@doors-agency.com
An exhibition produced by the Seine-Maritime Department and Doors 门艺, presented with the support of Menart Friends.
