Mouna Karray

The photographer Mouna Karray strives to make places and everyday objects “speak”. Should her chosen medium halt “at the surface” of things ontologically, the artist seeks to restore the complexity of the spaces that she encounters (be they domestic or urban, private or public) by going beyond superficial appearance and definition. In order to document the” real”, but above all to make the sense and identity of it apparent, the artist works in series. This exploratory method allows for expansion: from motivation to context, from anecdote to memory. On several occasions, in order to tackle the sensitive territory of the personal, Mouna Karray has expanded into other media: for example in the installation El’mech’ed, 2004 and the sound piece An object on the Shore, 2007.

Born in Sfax (Tunisia) in 1970, Mouna Karray studied cinema and photography in Tunis (1989-1993) and in Tokyo (1997-2002). During her time in Japan her work followed an autobiographical route, with notably the series Tokyo my Love (2001) and Identity at Stake (2002, current). The artist has also taught photography and curated exhibitions In Tunisia. She has been received as resident at the Centre d’Art Vivant at Rades (Tunisia) in 2004, at the Cite Internationale des Arts (Paris) in 2005, and at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation (Umbria, Italy) in 2007.

Mouna Karray has been involved in many group exhibitions: at Tunis’ Town Museum in 2006, at the Museum of Contemporary and Modern Art in Algiers in 2008, at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris 2009, at the Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels and in Marseille at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in 2010. She has also taken part in international shows in Europe and in Africa: The “Rencontres africaines de la photographie” in Bamako, the 30th Pontevedra Biennial in Spain and the 2nd Lumumbashi Biennial in the Democratic Republic of Congo.