Anadu Art Gallery

Scribbled, Layered, Torn: The Collage Practice of Jihène Bouden

October 13, 2026

By: Chieloka Anadu

A scrap of paper, a stray mark, a gesture made without a plan: for Jihène Bouden, any of these can be where a work begins. The Tunisian visual artist works mainly with collage, drawing, scribbling, and mixed-media experimentation, building a practice around trace, fragment, material, perception, and the living. Informed by philosophy, psychology, and close observation of nature, Bouden creates open-ended works that reflect on inner experience and on our relationship with the world.

The same sources feed the research behind the work. Observation, personal experience, nature, and the living all play a part, while philosophy and psychology sharpen questions around perception, emotion, and how people relate to the world around them. Images, fragments, materials, and spontaneous gestures can each become a starting point, which keeps the process open rather than planned.

Bouden counts Mark Rothko, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Henri Matisse among the artists who have shaped the work. What draws Bouden to them is not one shared style but their very different approaches to colour, form, composition, gesture, and the expressive potential of visual language.

Those same concerns show up in the choice of materials. Bouden works mainly with collage, drawing, scribbling, acrylic paint, and mixed-media experimentation, techniques that make room for layering, fragmentation, trace, and gesture. In the work Indigenous, acrylic paint, collage, and drawing come together to create a relationship between the human figure and the natural world.

When creative blocks arrive, Bouden doesn’t try to force the process. The response is to return to observation, collect images and fragments, draw freely, or experiment with materials without a predetermined outcome. Stepping back, Bouden finds, often lets the work develop naturally.

If the artwork could speak, its message would be short: “Reconnect with what is essential.” Bouden hopes the work will invite viewers to consider our relationship with nature and the possibility of living in greater harmony with the living world.

Taking part in a group exhibition matters to Bouden as a chance to place the work in dialogue with artists from different cultural backgrounds and perspectives. As a Tunisian artist, Bouden values the opportunity to connect with a broader African and international artistic community. Professionally, it also builds international exhibition experience and brings the work to a new audience.

Follow Bouden’s journey on Instagram: im_ae_go