"Throughout his career, Karabibene has formally explored an alternative universe, one that is hybrid and playfully staged with a whole range of mythical neo pop characters."
Born in 1962 in Bizerte (Tunisia), Halim Karabibene came to recognition in the 1990s due to his unusually sarcastic yet masterfully executed collages and oneiric paintings. Throughout his career, Karabibene has formally explored an alternative universe, one that is hybrid and playfully "staged" with a whole range of mythical neo pop characters. Since 2007, Karabibene has been pursuing a multidisciplinary performance in which he has been encouraging public authorities to inaugurate Tunisia's first National Museum of Modern and contemporary Art (MNAMC). With a pressure cooker as symbol and form of the future Museum, Karabibene uses social networks, events and exhibitions to effectively launch this pseudo fictional museum until it sees the light. Between 1982 and 1993, Karabibene has studied architecture and attended the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. From 1999 to 2001, he lived at the Cité Internationale des Arts of Paris. Karabibene's work has been regularly exhibited in private institutions and museums around the world, including at the “ifa gallery” in Berlin and Stuttgart, the Barjeel Foundation in Sharjah, the Museo Vittoriano in Rome, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Musée d’Art Moderne in Algiers, the Museo Pontevedra in Spain, among many others. Karabibene lives and works between Tunis, Bizerte and Berlin.