Portable shrine | kaÏs dhifi

22 Janvier 2026 – 28 Fevrier 2026 | Bhar Lazrag

Artist Statement

Shaping the self feeds the lifetime vehicle with an accumulation of experiences we gather and carry along a journey that may become an expression of everything that exists.

Moved by this versatile energy, we turn into a travel cabin, heading towards infinite whispering altars, exploring beyond the seen, a diorama of who we are.

How many times did I cross the river? In search of this wandering territory, already carrying with me all along a moving temple, needing no elsewhere, for everything was always already there.

Whoso travels into the self is ever moved by wondrous territories.

Curatorial Text

In the wordless, silver expanse of the Metalia-verse, exists a sanctuary known as Mystic Harbour. It is there that King Lizard (the artist’s avatar), and his companion Kibza (the artist’s best-friend), a chimera of futuristic design and ancient myth, reside.

This universe is not a mere fantasy but a transposition of Kaïs Dhifi’s reality, an animalistic and pagan world where the laws of physics are dictated by the rule of availability. To step into it is to embark on a deep descent into the self - “to restore this narration of the self, I have given it forms” says the artist.

Every artwork in this exhibition is a fragment of that inner voyage. Drifting within the metallic sea is the Floating Totem, a relic of a spacecraft that travels endlessly through time, carrying the weight of a civilization lost to the stars. Like the "Droplets" in Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem, these works are forged from the "grail of materials"; in this context, stainless steel.

While appearing as objects of great strength and absolute reflection, unlike the terrifying perfection of Cixin’s Droplets, these forms are more delicate and mirror back aesthetic deformities.

By refusing the cold precision of laser-cutting to maintain his independence from technological dependencies, the artist uses his own strength to cut through metal and adopt the “language of a child" to invite us into this complex navigation. This visual simplicity is a deliberate codex designed to invite the viewer into a multi-layered narrative; from endearing and accessible interpretation, to hidden codes and philosophical depth.

As the traveler moves deeper into the self, the forms shift from the figurative into the abstract; the triptych of Mystic Harbour acts as a map to this patchwork universe, where metal is woven to a Matisse-like tapestry. In the midst of it Antegonia serves as a landmark where nearby or far away, the Fortune Parlour stands as a temple on wheels. It is adorned with esoteric symbols the artist sculpted for those looking hard enough.

At its feet, the Altar, a metallic nature morte, a sharp offering to the cosmic cycle. And forty-three light-minutes from here, onto the self or on moon Europa, Star Icon, Moon Icon, and Sun Icon, can be retrieved as the fossils of this realm, the symbols of the cycle we all inhabit.

It is there, in that sanctuary of 1,000 manual rivets, into the Portable Shrine where one finds the point where the outer-world and the inner-voyage finally converge.

- Kenza Zouari
Independant Curator
Tunis, 2026