Yasmine Hamdan & More to Perform at ‘Jaou Tunis’ Biennale Oct 23-31

International contemporary art biennial Jaou Tunis returns for its eighth edition from October 23rd to November 22nd, transforming the Tunisian capital into a month-long programme of exhibitions, live performances and late-night gatherings.

Founded in 2012 by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Jaou Tunis began as an itinerant contemporary art platform championing cultural dialogue, regional artistic production and new ways of engaging with public space in post-revolution Tunisia. Over the years, it has brought together visual art, intellectual debate, live music and performance, positioning Tunis as a meeting point for artists and audiences from across the Arab world, Africa and the Mediterranean to explore pressing sociopolitical and cultural questions.

This year’s edition centres on Becoming the Ocean, a sprawling moving-image exhibition housed in the 19th-century Caserne El Attarine in the Medina. Beyond the galleries, the biennale’s musical programme extends these ideas into sound, bringing together Arab alternative pop, experimental electronics and underground club music across the city.

Spanning historic venues including Ancienne Bourse du Travail, Cité de la Culture and B7L9 Art Centre, this year’s musical programme brings together Arab alternative pop, experimental electronics and underground club music from across the region.

The programme opens at Ancienne Bourse du Travail on October 25th with Lebanese pioneer Yasmine Hamdan, whose blend of Arabic songwriting and electronic textures helped shape the region’s independent music landscape. On October 28th, Tunisian multi-instrumentalist Khalil EPI brings TUQUS (‘Ritual’) to Cité de la Culture, presenting an audiovisual exploration of communal trance across the Mediterranean. Drawing on sacred movement traditions from Cairo to Tunis, the project translates collective ritual into a driving electronic performance.

The following day, October 29th, B7L9 Art Centre hosts a meeting of underground sounds as Palestinian-Jordanian artists Julmud, Toumba and Big Murk bring together tarab, shelat, percussive rhythms and forward-thinking club production. On October 30th, the focus shifts between experimental electronics and live performance. At B7L9, Beirut-born, Montreal-based sound artist Liliane Chlela presents I, the Hybrid and the Antidote for its African debut, collaborating with local instrumentalists to push traditional acoustic forms into volatile electronic abstraction.

The same day, Belgian-Tunisian producer Sara Dziri debuts the live iteration of Sacred Disorientations, extending the programme’s exploration of sound and performance. Meanwhile, on October 31st, Egyptian singer and composer Nadah El Shazly takes the stage with Laini Tani, reshaping classical Egyptian vocal traditions through experimental electronics and raw improvisation.

Taking over Habibi Downtown, Jaou will also host a series of clubbing nights, with a lineup featuring a roster of regional and local DJs and collectives, like Cheb Mimo, Fares A, Hamdi Ryder, Yasmin Sun and more.

Jaou Tunis will also host Geneva’s Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement (BIM’26), marking the international biennale’s first appearance in the MENA region. Anchored by Becoming the Ocean, this year’s edition brings its central questions of transformation, memory and solidarity beyond the exhibition space, treating music as an experimental ground where these ideas can be challenged, reimagined and shared.

Tickets are available via Jaou Tunis' official website.