2013
Les Huit Soldats (The Eight Soldiers)
Painted on 29 July 2013 in response to the killing of eight Tunisian soldiers. Ghanmi describes working rapidly through grief and anger. At the request of serving soldiers who later saw it exhibited, the painting will never be sold and is to remain beside the Tunisian flag.
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In the artist’s words
The story behind the painting
The original account is preserved below, including its wording and historical collection notes.
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About the painting
Abrupt and spontaneously painted, there was no other choice but to rush to the studio and grab whatever paint was available. Had there been a bigger canvas I would have used it. The pain was unimaginable, it felt like I was the one who's just been shot and killed. To think of the pain our heroes had to endure was nothing short of torture. The brush strokes were sudden and very thick, almost mimicking the tears and the intolerable anger I'd just felt. Dealing with death is ok, but dealing with treachery and terror was very new to me and to many of my countrymen and women. I can still hear the screams of horror filling the air, tearing through my ears as I was trying to paint and express this somber day. I rushed and painted as fast as I could, hoping to keep those eight slain soldiers somehow alive. Guernica and other paintings depicting horror appeared. I could barely see colour, brush or strokes, I was fighting my own tears as I heard family and neighbors weep. Rest In Peace.
During an exhibition in Sidi Bou Said, winter 2014, a group of active soldiers and a lieutenant asked if they could place the Tunisian flag right next to the painting and requested that the painting never be sold. The canvas will never be sold and the Tunisian flag will forever be by its side.
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Measurements: 200x100cm
Private Collection
Why it was painted
Sometimes, there is no answer to 'Why?'
Sometimes it is just a human thing, a duty...
A duty to perpetuate those who fell victim to terror. Killed because they were protecting us from the horrors of this world. Artists should never shy away from immortalizing those who stood for what's right. Instead of feeling powerless, I could only do one thing, paint them.
Archive note: this account dates the soldiers’ visit to winter 2014. The exhibition chronology records Galerie Hedi Turki in winter 2013. Both dates are retained as originally recorded.