Nidhal Chamekh

Taking its title from philosopher Édouard Glissant’s question, ‘What If Carthage Hadn’t Been Destroyed?’ – posed in his book of collected poems Le Sel Noir (The Black Salt, 1957) – Nidhal Chamekh’s latest exhibition, ‘Et si Carthage’, is inspired by the ancient city whose ruins are a ten-minute drive from Selma Feriani’s new gallery space in downtown Tunis.

- Chloe Stead

Selma Feriani Gallery, Tunis, Tunisia

Once the centre of the mighty Carthaginian Empire, the city was burned to the ground by Roman troops in 146 BCE, thus signalling the end of the Punic Wars and the demise of Rome’s primary adversary. By speculating on what might have happened if Carthage hadn’t been razed, Glissant offers a thought experiment in which the Punic people acted as a counterpoint to an empire that would go on to form the basis of Western civilization.