Ismaïl Bahri (Tunisia, 1978) works with video, drawing, sculpture, and sound, without specializing in a single medium. He positions himself as an observer, creating setups to capture gestures and empirical experiments, paying close attention to “what happens.” His work focuses on the meaning that emerges at the periphery of vision, in the presence of the surrounding world that surfaces and reveals itself.

Ismaïl Bahri’s work has been exhibited at venues including Jeu de Paume (Paris), Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), Centre Pompidou (Paris), La Criée (Rennes), La Verrière (Brussels), Beirut Art Center (Beirut), and Staatliche Kunsthalle (Karlsruhe). His films have been selected for festivals such as TIFF (Toronto), NYFF (New York), IFFR (Rotterdam), and FID (Marseille).

Ismaïl Bahri’s work is characterized by filmic setups of great formal economy, often based on simple gestures and minimal situations. Through videos and performances that employ fragile materials—ink, paper, light, breath, projection surfaces—he investigates the very conditions under which images and meaning emerge. His works explore the tension between visibility and erasure, presence and disappearance, frequently situating his research within the Tunisian social and political context, particularly around questions of revolution, censorship, and the circulation of speech. Through a sensitive and conceptual approach, he transforms almost imperceptible phenomena into perceptual experiences that actively engage the viewer’s gaze and attention.