SENSE OF TOUCH: GESTURES ON ARCHEOLOGIES OF PLACE

The project “Sense of touch – gestures on archeologies of place” presents the works of a one-month-residency of Ava Binta Giallo and Verena Schneider in Gabès. Both artists explored the encounter with the environment, researching their relation to the local materials. Investigated with an attempt of nourishing, cyclic gestures. The installation reflects this process, representing both the dialogue between the two artists and their individual practices in the context of Gabès and the Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires Sidi Boulbaba.

Ava Binta Giallo presents an installation consisting of seven stone vessels, filled with water from the thinning river of the Oasis of Gabès. Their base area is identical to the size of the stones beneath them and they form a potential expansion or further growing. Placed in a rhythmic order in the squared courtyard of the museum. The water vessels are made of Gabès stone, a similar material used for the building. Therefore Giallo collaborated with the stone artisans Oussama Farhat, Aymen Farhat, and Naime Farhat, who carry on the family company of their grandfather. The installation is a new work of Giallo which is part of their series: temporary arrangements. The interventions of the series consist of artistic gestures to place – the temporary placements and constellation of bodies. In context of the Museum of Gabès, it alters the structure of the space and invites to apply oneself differently and with new perspectives in a possibly familiar space. The water surface reflects the building, the sky, the histories and becoming, while offering a source to drink and rest for birds and other inhabitants.

Verena Schneider presents a research performance that unfolds through a tactile and relational dialogue with wool from the Société des Tapis de Outhref, sand, and stone, as well as the spatial composition of Ava Binta Giallo’s installation. The performative work traces her encouner with these materials, environment, and labor. A resonance between bodies, gestures, and place emerges. Their choreographic research investigates the sensory body, inviting slowness, friction, and the unfolding of one’s own breath. What remains is a video installation capturing these fleeting encounters, where the body becomes material itself: sensing, reflecting, resonating. 

The project Sense of Touch started in 2024 in Vienna as a collaboration between the artists Verena Schneider, Younes Ben Slimane and Ava Binta Giallo, facilitated by philomena+ and La Boîte Tunis.