Biography

Mouna Karray was born in Sfax, Tunisia in 1970 and currently lives and works between Sfax and Paris.

Karray studied cinema and photography at the Institut Supérieur d’Animation Culturelle in Tunisia from 1989-1993 and later graduated from Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics and Arts with an MA in Image Media in 2002.

Solo exhibitions include Off-the-Air, Roger Ballen Foundation Centre for Photography, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa (2017), Nobody Will Talk About Us, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK (2016), Murmurer, Galerie El Marsa, Tunis, Tunisia (2011), and The Cut-Out, Diwan Dar el Jeld de la Medina, Tunis, Tunisia (2004).

In 2017, she exhibited at the 2^nd Biennale of Photographers of the Contemporary Arab World, at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, France. Her work was featured in the 12^th Dak’Art Biennale in Dakar, Senegal (2016) and was also recently featured in the group show Afriques Capitales, curated by Simon Njami, at La Villette, Paris, France (2017), as well as D’une Méditerranée, l’autre, at FRAC PACA, Marseilles, France (2016). She was also featured in the 2007 and 2011 Bamako Biennale, Mali, as well as in The Sea is my Land and Africa Big Change Big Chance, Triennale di Milano, Milano, Italy (2014).

Other recent group shows include: Instantanés d’Orient, Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium (2017), UNTITLED, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK (2017), VISIBLE / INVISIBLE, Urban Africa and Margins, Fondation Blachère, Aix en Provence, France (2015); The Divine Comedy – Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, curated by Simon Njami, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC, USA (2015) touring SCAD Museum of Art, Georgia, USA (2014-15) and MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany (2014); Ici, ailleurs, Friche la Belle de Mai, Tour-Panorama, Marseille, France (2013); Photoquai, Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France (2009).

Karray has participated in residency programs such as Matza Kerkennah, Tunisia (2017); Dream City, 3rd Edition of Biennal of Contemporary Art in Public Space, Sfax, Tunis, Tunisia (2012), Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbertide, Italy (2007); and Cité Internationale des Arts de Paris, France (2005).

Her work is included in the collections of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, the Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Luanda, Angola, and the Ministry of Tunisian Culture.

Education

2001

MA in Image Media, Institute of Polytechnics and Arts, Tokyo, Japan.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2017

Off-the-Air, Roger Ballen Foundation Centre for Photography, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa.

2016

Nobody Will Talk About Us, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK. (C)

2011

Murmurer, Galerie El Marsa, Tunis, Tunisia. (C)

2004

The Cut-Out, Diwan Dar el Jeld de la Medina, Tunis, Tunisia.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018

Lieux de Nulle Part, GHAYA Gallery, Carthage, Tunisia.

Africa is No Island, MACAAL, Marrakesh, Morocco.

2017

Instantanés d’Orient, Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium.

2^nd Biennial of Photographers of the Contemporary Arab World, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France.

UNTITLED, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK.

A Piece of Street Festival, Basel, Switzerland.

Afriques Capitales, curated by Simon Njami, La Villette, Paris, France.

2016

D’une Méditerranée, l’autre, FRAC Provence Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Marseille, France.

Dak’Art 2016: The 12th Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Dakar, Senegal.

2015

Broken English, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK.

The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA. (C)

Visible Invisible, Fondation Blachère, Aix en Provence, France.

2014

The Divine Comedy, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, USA. The Divine Comedy, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany. Africa Big Change Big Chance, Triennale di Milano, Milano, Italy. The Sea is my Land, Triennale di Milano, Milano, Italy. Africaines, 15 femmes en création, Fondation Attijariwafa Bank, Casablanca, Morocco.

2013

The Sea is my Land, MAXXI, Rome, Italy. (C) Ici, Ailleurs, Friche la Belle de Mai, Tour-Panorama, Marseille-Provence 2013 European Capital of Culture, Marseille, France. (C) The Bamako Encounters, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal. Bright Future Contemporary Art from Tunisia, Ifa Gallery Stuttgart, Germany. Parce que c'est blanc, parce que c'est noir et bien d'autres choses encores, Galerie 127, Marrakech, Morocco.

2012

Come Together London, Edge of Arabia, Old Truman Brewery, London, UK.

Bright Future Contemporary Art from Tunisia, Ifa Gallery Berlin, Germany.

Dream City, 3rd Edition of Biennial of Contemporary Art in Public Space, Sfax, Tunis, Tunisia.

Chkoun Ahna, Musée National de Carthage, Tunisia.

Dégagements… La Tunisie un an après, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France.

Pan-African Photography For A Sustainable World, 9th Edition of the Bamako Encounters, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Bruxelles, Belgium.

2011

Pan-African Photography For A Sustainable World, 9th Edition of the Bamako Encounters (touring), Bamako, Mali. (C)

2010

A Useful Dream, BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium. (C)

Picha, Image Encounters, Lubumbashi, Congo.

L'autre bord #1, Galerie des grands bains douches, Marseille, France.

2009

Photoquai, Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France. (C)

Spot on Bamako 2007, Ifa gallery, Stuttgart, Germany.

Women of images, snatches of intimacy, French Cultural Centre of Beyrouth, Lebanon.

2008

Spot on Bamako 2007, Ifa gallery, Berlin, Germany.

The Winter Show, Afronova Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Thirtieth Pontevedra Art Biennale, Pontevedra, Spain.

Women of Images, Espace Landowski, Boulogne-Billancourt, France.

Regards des Photographes Arabes Contemporains, MAMA, Musée National d’art Moderne et Contemporain d’Alger, Algiers, Algeria. (C)

2007

Women of Images, Snatches of Intimacy, Cultures, France.

The 7th African Encounters of Photography, Bamako, Mali.

2006

The Revealed Image, Museum of Kheireddine Palace, Tunis, Tunisia.

Solo Publications

2011

Murmurer, Galerie El Marsa, La Marsa, Tunisia, October 2011.

Publications

2014

Njami, Simon (ed.), The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Kerber Verlag: Bielefeld/Berlin, Germany, 2014. pp.95, 294-297.

Magee, Carol, There Is a There There: Place in African Cityscape, Photography and Culture: Vol. 7, Issue 1, March 2014. pp.41-62.

2013

Bonami, Francesco and Mazzonis, Emanuela (eds.), The Sea Is My Land, Artisti dal Mediterraneo, Feltrinelli: Milan, Italy, 2013. pp.133-139.

Laffon, Juliette (Coe.), Ici, Ailleurs, Skira Flammarion: Marseille, France, January 2013. pp.122-125.

Cohen Hadria, Michele, Three Tunisian Women Artists: Nicène Kossentini, Mouna Karray and Moufida Fedhila, KT Press, Kindle Edition, 2013.

2012

Barsch, Barbara and Bruckbauer (eds.), Un avenir en Rose, Contemporary Art from Tunisia, IFA Galerie/Kerber Verlag: Bielefeld/Berlin, Germany, 2012.

2011

Amirsadeghi, Hossein, Mikdadi, Salwa and Shabout, Nada (eds.), New Vision: Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Transglobe Publishing: London, UK, 2011. pp.186-189.

Eyene, Christine (coe), L’Art au Féminin: approches contemporaines, L’Harmattan, July 2011.

Krifa, Michket and Serani, Laura (eds.), For a Sustainable World: Rencontres de Bamako, African Photography Biennial, 9th Edition, Institute Français/Actes Sud: Arles, France, 2011. pp.142-145.

2010

Njami, Simon (ed.), A Useful Dream: African Photography 1960-2010, Silvana Editoriale: Milan, Italy, 2010. pp.120-122.

2009

Ghabaian Etehadieh, Anahita (ed.), Photoquai 2009, 2nd Biennale of Photography, Actes Sud/Musée du quai Branly: Arles, France, 2009.

2008

Regards des Photographes Arabes Contemporains, MAMA, Musée Public National d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Algiers, Algeria, 2008.

2007

Konaté, Moussa and Njami, Simon (eds.), Bamako 2007: VIIÈmes Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie dans la ville et au-delà, Marval, Paris, France, November 2007.

Residencies

2017

Matza Kerkennah, Tunisia.

2012

Dream City, 3rd Edition of Biennal of Contemporary Art in Public Space, Sfax, Tunis, Tunisia.

2008

Je pense à toi, Siwa 02, Odeon Theater, Paris, France.

2007

Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbertide, Italy.

2005

Cité Internationale des Arts de Paris, France.

2004

Centre d'Art Vivant de Rades, Tunisia.

Biography & Press

2018

----, The insider guide to Contemporary African art, christies.com, 15 February 2018.

----, Présentation à Marrakech du livre “Lumières africaines, l’élan contemporain” cosigné par André Magnin et Mehdi Qotbi, atlasinfo.fr, 25 Février 2018.

2017

Siegfried Forster, Biennale des photographes du monde arabe: l’Algérie et la Tunisie à l’honneur, rfi.fr, 15 September 2017.

Mahdaoui, Anissa, La photographe tunisienne Mouna Karray au centre de l'actualité artistique africaine, huffpostmaghreb.com, 9 August 2017.

2016

Mercier, Jeanne, Mouna Karray, Fisheye Magazine, Issue No. 21, November-December 2016, p. 39.

Azimi, Roxana, Dak’Art 2016 : du chaos surgit une très belle exposition internationale, lemonde.fr, 4 May 2016.

Kordic, Angie, Encounters with people and landscapes of Tunisia in Mouna Karray exhibition at Tyburn Gallery, widewalls.ch, 7 April 2016.

Atak, Awut, 7 African artists exhibiting at Dak'Art Biennale 2016, trueafrica.co, 01 February 2016.

Morgan, Hayley, A Single Body, Suppressed, Museum: Issue 4, March 2016. pp.98-99.

----, Mouna Karray: Nobody Will Talk About Us, snapped, Art Africa magazine, March 2016. pp.134-139.

----, Mouna Karray: Nobody Will Talk About Us, Wall Street International, 15 March 2016.

2015

Keyte, Matthew, 10 North African Contemporary Artists You Need To Know, theculturetrip.com, 13th November 2015.

Nyfeler, Morgane, From London To Africa: Tyburn Gallery’s Inaugural Exhibition Broken English, ours-mag.com, 16 September 2015.

O'Toole, Sean, Becoming African: Sean O'Toole on the All-New ART AFRICA, artsouthafrica.com, 17 September 2015.

Paw, David, ’Broken English': London's Tyburn Gallery holds show of contemporary African art, wallpaper.com, 25 September 2015.

2014

Diop, Salimata, Mouna Karray: The Rope, IAM Intense Art Magazine #01, automne/hiver 2014.

Mercier, Jeanne, Portfolio: Mouna Karray, Noir, L'œil de la photographie, 5 June 2014.

Sowole, Tajudeen, Nigeria: Shonibare, Over 40 African Artists Converge for Divine Comedy, allafrica.com, 10 October 2014.

----, PHOTOGRAPHY: Noir (2013) by Mouna Karray, akatasia.com, 04 June 2014.

2013

Cohen Hadria, Michèle, Trois artistes tunisiennes: Nicène Kossentini, Mouna Karray et Moufida Fedhila, Publication KT Press, 2013. c.77 p. 40.

Malivel, Garance, Içi, ailleurs. Trajectoires méditérranéennes, Art absolument, March-April 2013. pp. 60-63.

Marsaud, Olivia, Cahier critique - Valeurs sûres à Marseille, Afrique in Visu, February 2013.

2012

Downey, Anthony, CHKOUN AHNA, Ibraaz 003, May 2012.

Larkins, Zoe, Chkoun Ahna Opens Tunisia's Contemporary Chapter, artinamericamagazine.com, 07 May 2012.

2011

Belhassine, Olfa, «Murmurer» ces murs absurdes, La presse de Tunisie, January 2011.

----, Entretien de Marian Nur Goni avec Mouna Karray, Dans les interstices, la photographie de Mouna Karray, Africultures, January 2011.

2010

Bruckbauer, Christine, "Murmurer" or the Whispering of Neglected Walls, Universe in universe, April 2010.

2009

Belhassine, Olfa, La saison de Mouna Karray à Paris, La presse de Tunisie, September 2009.

Mekouar, Mouna, Murmurer, Portrait d'une architecture défunte, Catalogue Murmurer, galerie El Marsa, October 2009.

2007

----, L'identité en question, photographies de Mouna Karray, Afrique in visu, 25 June 2007.

Collections

2017Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa.

Nadour Private Collection.

Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Luanda, Angola.

Ministry of Tunisian Culture.