Title: The Self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi

Year: 2018

Media: BIRO and watercolour pencil on paper

Size: 56.5 x 45 cm

About the work: Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi (29 March 1984 – 4 January 2011) was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, which became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring against autocratic regimes. His self-immolation was a response to the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides.

Simmering public anger and sporadic violence intensified following Bouazizi's death, leading the then-president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down on 14 January 2011, after 23 years in power. The success of the Tunisian protests inspired protests in several other Arab countries, plus several non-Arab countries. The protests included several men who emulated Bouazizi's act of self-immolation, in an attempt to bring an end to their own autocratic governments. Those men and Bouazizi were hailed by Arab commentators as "heroic martyrs of a new Middle Eastern revolution".

In 2011, Bouazizi was posthumously awarded the Sakharov Prize jointly along with four others for his and their contributions to "historic changes in the Arab world". The Tunisian government honored him with a postage stamp. The Times of the United Kingdom named Bouazizi as "Person of 2011", The Jerusalem Post's Amotz Asa-El named him "Person of the Jewish Year 5771" and "The Protester" was named Time 2011 Person of the Year.

Bio: Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1967, Goshka Macuga lives and works in London since 1989. Her practice connects different areas and methods of research. Her inquiries are often focused on institutional histories proposing unconventional associative readings of their social and political histories. Macuga’s strategic orchestration of existing materials, collectables and archival documents support the reframing of established narratives. In October 2024 she conceived a large project titled “Tales and Tellers” at Palais D’lena, Paris, commissioned by MiuMiu in partnership with Art Basel Paris. In 2023 she has created a sculpture titled GONOGO for Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo exhibited at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. The initial proposal for the sculpture was shortlisted for the Fourth Plinth on the Trafalgar Square in London , 2021. In 2019, she conceived Exhibition M, a large-scale commission for the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 

She has had solo exhibitions at the New Museum, New York, US; Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy;Neues Museum, Nüremberg, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA;Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland ; Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK; Tate Britain, London, UK; Kunsthalle Basel,Switzerland ;Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis, USA;Museo de arte contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), Spain,Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain.