Jaou Photo 2022

Following a series of Covid-19-related postponements, the biennial festival returns this year as Jaou Photo for an edition dedicated to photography, image making and moving images, with an overarching theme of “The Endless Body“.

This edition, according to its programme, seeks to address ideas around “the corporeal body, the social body, imaginary bodies, and the body politic”, in what is a timely moment following the impact of the global health crisis, and in the wake of international movements in the battle for bodily autonomy. Jaou’s central exhibition “Our Time, Even in Dreams“, curated by Karim Sultan, takes over advertising billboards throughout the city, staging a parallel display along Avenue Habib Bourguiba, the historic downtown site of the country’s famous 2011 uprising. This city-wide exhibition brings together a diverse selection of artists and photographers including Athi-Patra Ruga, Amina Kadous, Amina Menia, Gabrielle Goliath, John Akomfrah, Larissa Sansour, Mohammed Zaanoun, Sophia Baraket, and Taysir Batniji, among others. Presented through a series of prompts, this intervention disrupts the constant stream of images bombarding everyday life within the urban environment, promising moments of pause and reflection.