> Editorial by Zeyneb Raissi  

Cluster of matter is an exhibition whereby a new narrative around the paleontological heritage of the city of Metlaoui is introduced through drawings, installations and videos. The exhibition presents a reinvented visual index that aims to embody the paleontological richness of the southwest mining basin of Tunisia while capturing the reality of highly exploited yet forgotten land. 

This visual index regroups a register of speculations about the fauna and the flora that could have existed, the cross-sectional layers of sedimentary matter that could have survived and an altered replica of an archive that could have been preserved. The visual speculation about emblematic specimens of the region asserts itself as a way of criticizing the parts of history that were stolen under the cover of colonialism and the pretense of scientific research. 

The artistic approach of Bochra Taboubi relies on exploring landscapes, archives and paleontological references to create reimagined phylum of specimens. As the strata of the research came along with the strata of the depictions, the chimerical creatures began to take shape allowing speculative lines to partake in a dialogue aiming to shed the light on an emerging recognition about some buried questions.These lines that intertwine with the past and the present, the historical and the political, the real and the chimerical, the Art and Science, overlap with the lines that could have traced a different story of the territory.