A Pictorial Exploration Where Figuration and Abstraction Dialogue to Question Temporality, Memory, and Transmission
Can we make visible the passage of time and the memories that settle within it?
The exhibition Or d’Ombres by artist Slim Elkhiari, currently on view at the Espace Art et Culture Hédi Turki and inaugurated on 6 February 2026, offers exactly that: a painted investigation where figuration and abstraction converse to probe temporality, memory, and transmission.
A Scientific‑Artistic Follow‑Up
The day after the opening, a conference titled “At the Intersection of Science and Plastic Arts: The Paradigm of Or d’Ombres” extended the experience. It highlighted the scientific dimension of Elkhiari’s practice and its dialogue with art history—most notably through Michel Angelo, presented as a model of structured, encyclopedic knowledge.
Visual Language
The show reveals a dense universe where powerfully embodied faces, suspended gestures, and fragmented figures are arranged in layered compositions. Elkhiari juxtaposes classic and contemporary elements, inviting the viewer to navigate multiple registers of meaning.
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Silhouettes, body fragments, and figures drawn from diverse cultures—piercing gazes, African or Indian characters, veiled forms—form a visual atlas of human memory and cultural diversity.
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Recurring motifs such as soft watches and clocks act as a plastic translation of time. Inspired by Salvador Dalí, the fluid, floating watches convey lived, unstable, malleable time, while more structured clocks reference rational, social measurement.
The tension between these two “time regimes” creates a constant pull, reinforcing the impression of time unfolding differently across the pictorial space.
Paint as Memory
The paint itself becomes a carrier of memory and meaning. Layered, sometimes rough surfaces expose the artist’s gestures, inscribing time directly onto the canvas.
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Multicolored beads scattered across the works and paper reproductions of coins glued onto the canvas materialize a concrete relationship to experience and object memory. They bridge the artwork with reality and question memory—not only individual, but collective and cultural.
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Hands painted in a gesture reminiscent of Michel Angelo do not celebrate divine transcendence; they embody horizontal transmission—something circulates between beings, between memory fragments, between gestures and objects. The fragile, luminous sphere that some hands appear to hold or pass on becomes a metaphor for suspended creation and memory, a dialogue space between tradition and invention.
Between Heritage and Re‑interpretation
Balancing heritage and reinterpretation, figuration and abstraction, Slim Elkhiari constructs an original, multi‑layered pictorial arena that irresistibly draws the viewer’s gaze. The audience is invited to pause, observe, and enter a meditation on time and memories.
Far from a spectacular gimmick, Or d’Ombres offers a place where painting becomes archive, exploration, and reflective experience. The exhibition rewards careful viewing: every detail, motif, texture, and colour tells a fragment of memory and invites an encounter where time and space are suspended.
— Ilhem Larbi
Further Reading
Keywords: Slim Elkhiari, Or d’Ombres exhibition, temporality, memory, abstraction, figuration, Michel Angelo, Salvador Dalí, contemporary Tunisian art, art and science conference.
