Shluq, Chullu and IICT Present “Poetry, Poetry, Take Me Away”: The Body as an Altar

As part of Shluq, Chullu and the Italian Institute of Culture in Tunis (IICT) present الشعر، الشعر، خذني معك | Poetry, Poetry, Take Me Away: The Body as an Altar, a collective artistic workshop exploring the relationship between poetry, the body and visual expression. Taking place on October 23 at DAYONE in La Marsa, Tunis, the workshop invites participants to experience poetry beyond the written page, transforming words into physical, wearable forms.

Conceived as a collective ritual, the workshop explores how poetry can be stitched, painted and carried upon the body. Garments become surfaces for artistic expression, while the body itself becomes a space for inscription, interpretation and activation. Through this approach, written language moves into everyday life, blurring the boundaries between literature, performance and visual art.

The project enters into dialogue with the Italian Antigruppo movement, which challenged conventional literary spaces by bringing poetry into public and everyday environments, including walls, tablecloths and shirts. By drawing on this spirit of experimentation, Poetry, Poetry, Take Me Away proposes a shared space in which words become tangible, personal and collective, inviting participants to reconsider how poetry can be experienced, displayed and carried.

The workshop will be led by Simona Squadrito and Giulia Currà, two practitioners whose work engages with contemporary art, independent publishing and experimental forms of expression.

Simona Squadrito is an educator, author, critic and independent curator who teaches at NABA in Milan and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Syracuse within the MADE programme. Her research focuses on artists’ books, experimental poetry and independent publishing, with particular attention to the intersections between curatorial practice and contemporary visual culture. She is also a cofounder of REPLICA, an Italian archive dedicated to artists’ books, and KABUL magazine.

Giulia Currà is an artist and self described “mover,” a term she uses to describe her engagement with processes of relocation and transition. She founded Traslochi Emotivi and Casa Cicca Museum and collaborates with Gilda Von Rümelin on testi eccedenti and with Cora Baratti on il Salotto delle Preziose. Her practice brings together artistic experimentation, collective processes and alternative approaches to cultural expression.

Open to everyone and free of charge, the workshop offers an opportunity to engage with poetry through material, movement and shared creative practice. Rather than treating the body as a passive surface, the project places it at the centre of the artistic process, turning clothing into a medium through which words can be embodied and shared.

Event Details

Event: الشعر، الشعر، خذني معك | Poetry, Poetry, Take Me Away: The Body as an Altar

Presented by: Shluq, Chullu and the Italian Institute of Culture in Tunis (IICT)

Date: October 23, 2026

Time: 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Venue: DAYONE, La Marsa, Tunis

Admission: Free

Participation: Open to everyone

Artwork by Tommaso Petrosino.

Chullu Agency