Houda Ghorbel
“At attention, little soldiers, obedience is a requirement. Pledge allegiance, otherwise your subjugation will not be optional and it not be without pain.
Seven soldier’s heads mounted on the wall, born in the cradle of humanity from dirty, black pipes. At attention, their servitude is not without consequences for their lives. Their divided skulls reveal two sides of the same face, one is tranquil and smooth, and the other is bruised and disfigured. The indisputable diagnosis is the schizophrenia that plagues our society.
Torn between a system that promotes individualism based on required skills, enhancements and financial success, and between traditions based on excessive respect for family and social codes; individuals suffer and are tormented.
The opening created by globalization is sudden, like lightening cutting through a sky that was previously closed by traditional and religious restrictions. We are tossed off a cliff and into a deep identity crisis.
Dissatisfied immortals boosted by the dictates of capitalism, each one submits to the discipline of a badly oiled system and sees a soldier born within him, one who is unaware of his condition but troubled by the numerous contradictions.”
Text written by Neila Mhiri and translated by Anne Marie Butler
