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In the heart of Sammichele di Bari, Aymen Mbarki intertwines his artistic research with the town's layered history, rich in migrations, hospitality, and transformations. Founded in 1608 by the Jewish-Portuguese merchant Michele Vaaz and populated by Slavic refugees fleeing Ottoman invasions, this Apulian village holds a plural memory that deeply resonates in the artist’s work.
Inspired by the numerous walled-up doors scattered throughout the historic center—silent traces of promised or denied accesses, forgotten or unrealized—Mbarki creates a portal that serves as a metaphor for both inner and collective thresholds. As Octavio Paz wrote, “Everything is a door. All one needs is the light push of a thought”, accordingly the Tunisian artist invites passersby to transcend the barriers of the everyday, opening a passage to contemplation, reflection, and imagination.
The work consists of a laser-engraved plexiglass sheet featuring faintly perceptible symbols, signs, and writings with an iron frame with Arabesque lines typical of North African medinas. Rooted in Mediterranean histories and mythologies, these white-etched symbols evoke epiphanies, collective memories, and poetic suggestions. The semi-transparent plexiglass surface mirrors that of the (Mediterranean) sea: an immense gateway, a fluid and mutable threshold, both welcoming and perilous. Thus, the work becomes not only a visual and symbolic passage but also a space for political reflection on urgent contemporary issues.
The title, The Verse of the Sea (Hizb al-Bahr), draws inspiration from the verses of the mystic Abu Al Hassan Al Chaduli, who invoked the sea as a space of protection, meditation, and revelation. Like the marabouts—spiritual and hospitable sentinels who watched over the North African coasts with vigilant eyes and open arms—Mbarki invites us to rethink the Mediterranean, not as a line of fracture, but as a shared horizon: a common space of memory, encounter, and hope, a threshold to cross with the gentle push of a thought.
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Artwork:
01. Aymen Mbarki, Il versetto del mare, 2025,laser engraving on plexiglass, iron, 250 x 130 x 5 cm
Piazza Caracciolo, Sammichele di Bari (BA)
The work is located in a limited traffic zone (ZTL) in the historic center of the village.
THIS DOOR IS NOT MERELY A PASSAGE TO ESCAPE OUR WORLD BUT A THRESHOLD TO CREATE A NEW ONE. IT EVOKES OUR SHARED HISTORY, TRANSCENDING THE UPHEAVALS AND CONFLICTS OF OUR TIME, POETICALLY REAFFIRMING OUR POTENTIAL FOR CONNECTION AND RENEWAL.
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Aymen Mbarki is a self-taught visual artist whose practice is defined by a deep sensitivity to the poetics and politics of language and mythology. At the age of five, he encountered a reproduction of Saturn Devouring His Son by Goya—an experience that profoundly shaped his artistic perspective. His graphically minimal compositions and painterly lines, oscillating between figurative abstraction, theatricality, and asemic writing, capture the essence of spontaneous, intimate human gestures. His work constructs a dialogue between material and movement, pattern and experimentation, drawing inspiration from poetry, literature, Greek mythology, and classical tragedy.
His first group exhibition was held in 2019 at the National Library of Tunis. Since then, he has participated in numerous solo and group shows, including: Sun Rays and Tiny Cubes, Selma Feriani Gallery, Tunis (TN, 2024); Za'ir – Ruggito, VOGA Art Project, Bari (IT, 2024); Hirafen: Talan l’Expo, curated by Ludovic Delalande and Nadia Jelassi, Tunis (TN, 2023); Letters to Ovid, Yosr Ben Ammar Gallery, Marsa (TN, 2021); Galerie A. Gorgi, Tunis (TN, 2021); and Yosr Ben Ammar Gallery, Tunis (TN, 2020). He has also taken part in international residencies and art fairs, including: L’atelier Selma Feriani – Drawing as an Installation, Tunis (TN, 2023); Liste Art Fair, Basel (CH, 2024); and Cape Town Art Fair (ZA, 2022, 2023).
Aymen Mbarki, Il versetto del mare, Sammichele di Bari (BA), Puglia. Ph Christian Mantuano.
Aymen Mbarki, Il versetto del mare, Sammichele di Bari (BA), Puglia. Ph Christian Mantuano.
Aymen Mbarki, Il versetto del mare, Sammichele di Bari (BA), Puglia. Ph Christian Mantuano.
Aymen Mbarki, Il versetto del mare, Sammichele di Bari (BA), Puglia. Ph Christian Mantuano.
Aymen Mbarki, Il versetto del mare, Sammichele di Bari (BA), Puglia. Ph Christian Mantuano.
Sammichele di Bari lies in the inland Bari province, among vineyards, olive, cherry, and almond trees, within the Lama Diumo area of the Lama San Giorgio hydrographic network. Though its origins date to the Bronze Age, the current village was founded in 1609 by Portuguese nobleman Michele Vaaz. The first settlement of 87 houses grew around the Centuriona tower, now Castello Caracciolo and home to the Museo della Civiltà Contadina.Renamed Casale San Michele in 1619, it was ruled by the Caracciolo family until 1806. The historic center preserves the typical vignali: small stone dwellings, whitewashed with lime and once adorned with climbing vines at the entrance. Another symbol of tradition are the apotropaic masks carved in local stone, bearing witness to ancient popular beliefs.Food and wine tourism thrives here, thanks to the zampina, a mixed meat sausage celebrated with a festival since 1967, and the focaccia a libro, now a Slow Food Presidium.Sammichele is also famed for its festini, Carnival dances with masked groups, identified by the Ministry of Culture, as a historical and identity-related event.
Co-directed by Nicola Guastamacchia and Flavia Tritto, VOGA Art Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to the research, production and valorization of contemporary art in Apulia. Since 2021 it organizes exhibitions, residencies, talks and workshops, combining an international program with the opportunity for local artists and organizations to disseminate their work. The name of the organization – an exhortation to navigate together – defines the critical horizon of the project and the objective to establish itself as a center for contemporary art in Bari, in the heart of the Mediterranean. For Una Boccata d’Arte, he curated the projects by Simone Bacco in Spinazzola (2022), Evita Vasiljeva in Maruggio (2023), and Emanuele Marullo in Poggiorsini (2024).