Autumn of the Earth, Spring of the Comprador – An Exhibition at La Boîte
La Presse – La Boîte, a contemporary art space, has been presenting since 11 February the exhibition “Autumn of the Earth, Spring of the Comprador” by Tunisian artist Saif Fradj. In this project the artist treats the figure of the comprador as a concrete presence embedded in landscapes, bodies, infrastructures and production systems.
Curated by Farah Sayem, the show functions both as a rigorous meditation on the cycles of life and death and as a critical investigation of contemporary forms of domination that sweep across Tunisia’s peripheral territories.
From Long‑Term Engagement to Multidisciplinary Collaboration
Born out of a need for political engagement, the project unfolded over an extended period—from the K Artist Residency within the Gabès Cinema Festival to its appearance at Oasis Days, where a “dead” grenadier was recovered and re‑presented as an installation. It was built together with a multidisciplinary team and in close dialogue with the field, affirming a conception of art as investigation, listening, and confrontation with local realities.
The Historical Weight of the “Comprador”
The term comprador—originating in the Portuguese colonial context—referred to a native intermediary serving foreign interests. Adopted by Marxist theories of imperialism, it distinguishes the national bourgeoisie from a “comprador” bourgeoisie subservient to external capital. Throughout the exhibition, this figure serves as a key lens for reading the historical continuities of appropriation and exploitation, regardless of regime changes.
A Palimpsest of Power
The territory appears as a palimpsest: each ruling power leaves its trace, scar, or infrastructure without ever fully erasing the previous ones. From Beylical domination to foreign colonisation, then to the post‑colonial state, persistent logics of extraction and dependence emerge. The Gabès region, in particular, embodies this stratification.
Since the installation of a chemical complex in the early 1970s, Gabès has undergone a radical transformation:
- Enduring phosphate‑related pollution
- Imposed monoculture
- Progressive drying of oases
- Degradation of marine ecosystems
- Population displacement
These are manifestations of an extractivist development model that creates “sacrificial zones.”
Resistance Through a Brutal Aesthetic
Confronting an institutional discourse that tends to normalise or render invisible these damages, the project adopts a stance of resistance. It rejects any aestheticisation of catastrophe, opting for a raw, deliberately unspectacular visual language where the archive becomes a field of active, conflicting forces.
Echoing Achille Mbembe’s reflections on “regimes of archives” and the work of Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, the archive is re‑imagined as a space of struggle, disobedience, and re‑configuration of the gaze. Produced, selected, or erased according to precise power relations, the archive here is turned to surface marginal, sometimes silent fragments: stories emerging from soil, vegetation, human and animal bodies, or the oral memory of residents.
Images as Critical Tools
The image thus becomes a critical instrument capable of cracking official narratives and making visible what is relegated to the margins. The works—photography, video, and installations—oscillate between nature and industry, organic production and human manufacture, putting in tension concepts such as neocolonialism, internal colonialism, dependent economies, and the comprador as a local mediator of dominant interests.
By collaborating with farmers, inhabitants, researchers, and artists, the project explores how nature itself becomes a carrier of narratives. It reveals discreet yet persistent forms of resistance against occupation, extraction, and destruction.
About the Artist
Saif Fradj (born 1989 in Bou Merdes, Mahdia Governorate) is a poet, multidisciplinary artist, and filmmaker now based in Sousse. He co‑founded the collectives Bouma and South of Ajdabya. After studying medicine at the University of Sousse, he chose to devote himself fully to visual art.
Fradj works across mobile, analog, and digital photography as well as video, interrogating borders and identity in a world shaped by neocolonial dynamics. His works have been shown at numerous festivals and galleries worldwide.
Exhibition Details
- Title: Autumn of the Earth, Spring of the Comprador
- Venue: La Boîte, contemporary art space, Tunis
- Opening date: 11 February 2026
- Closing date: 25 March 2026
Visit the exhibition to experience a powerful artistic investigation of Tunisia’s layered histories, ecological crises, and the enduring role of the comprador in contemporary power structures.
