Jasmine Revolution, 2011. Photo by Nicène Kossentini.
For this Creative Time Reports Audio Dispatch, Editor Marisa Mazria Katz visits Tunisia-based video artist and photographer Nicène Kossentini one year after the country’s uprising, also known as the Jasmine Revolution, against dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Nicène was among the tens of thousands of people who demonstrated in downtown Tunis on January 14, 2011—the same day Ben Ali dissolved his government and fled to his current home of Saudi Arabia.
Despite Ben Ali’s departure, Kossentini argues there is still much work to be done in her native Tunisia. “Artists thought things would change very quickly,” says Kossentini. But, she adds, a “cultural revolution” must also take place if the dreams of the Jasmine Revolution are to be fulfilled.
