presentation of a school workshop between Tunis and Vienna
Tuesday, 18/04/2023, 3 – 5 pm

Métlaoui in Southern Tunisia was the find spot of a huge, almost forgotten collection of paleontological treasures. Nowadays phosphate exploitation leaves the landscape devastated.
The artist Bochra Taboubi is determined to shift this focus and build an independent, hybrid museum for Métlaoui’s fossils. But how do you build a museum for a lost collection, without site and support? Speculative thinking, drawings on tracing paper and fearlessness have taken her quite far.

Invited by philomena+ Bochra Taboubi collaborates, now, with the artistic researcher/teacher Verena Miedl-Faißt , who is mainly working in co-creative teams with children. They will connect a group of school kids from Tunis and from Mödling to build a powerful think-tank for Bochra’s utopian endeavours.

artists
BOCHRA TABOUBI
(*1993, lives and works in Tunis) studied product design at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts of Tunis. She is interested in organic shapes, biomimicry and the relationship between Human and Nature. These biological and philosophical inquiries take the form of drawings, monographs, videos and installations. She mainly works on artificial life with fictitious creatures to create her own fabulatory repertoire that is questioning human’s issues. Bochra Taboubi participated at the Octopus Programme by the University of Applied Art of Vienna and the Kamel Lazaar Foundation in Tunis (2020/2021), was an artist-in-residence at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2019/2020) and at the Performing art center in Tunis (2018/2019).

VERENA MIEDL–FAIßT
Verena Miedl-Faißt is an artistic researcher, writer, friend, art educator and photographer based in Vienna. In 2022, she was an artist-in-residence at NES Skagaströnd (Iceland), participated at the Octopus Programme by the University of Applied Arts Vienna and at the exhibition IVY at Zilberman Gallery in Istanbul. Currently, she is a PhD in Art candidate at Center Research Focus at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.