Férielle Doulain-Zouari is a Franco-Tunisian artist based in Tunisia. After studying Textile at ESAA Duperré and ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres, she started to develop researches linked to the field of art craft and produced handmade manipulations including sculptures, weaving in volume, and installation in situ. With a special interest for manufactured industrial objects, or “Made in China” items, her work builds links and dialogue between those elements opposed. Doulain-Zouari has exhibited her works in Tunisia, Chile, France, Alger, at the Biennale of sculpture in Ouagadougou, and recently at PARALLEL Vienna in Austria.
project
Ballades: Listening to wild plants
Experiences and the connections between daily life, art and nature are the subjects of Doulain-Zouari’s research.
How to develop the idea of a material reconciliation with nature ?
How can the natural and the artificial coexist ?How to place the living at the heart of a plastic research ?
Through handmaid manipulations, inspired from the field of textile, but also referring to some System D spontaneous ways to fix and repair, this research tries to build connexions between the vegetal and daily-use objects. Using some regional stories of plants and traditional vegetal arts techniques, this process is taking care of the specificity of each natural element, and its evolution over months and seasons.
The main phase of the project is taking place in Le Kef (North-west of Tunisia) and focuses on wild and seasonal plants of the region. The popular oral heritage of this agricultural region is being collected as part of the research. This work of collecting stories about plants is carried out in parallel with a scientific research phase which aimed to present plants in unexpected ways. In that step, the practice of Kokedama, a traditional vegetal art in Japan, is included and enriches the research as its principle is to associate wild plants harvested in a natural environment and to present them as creative decorations.