At the 2002 Dak’Art Biennale, Charfi presented Cry of a Child (2002), a multimedia installation comprising a band of laminated photographic prints and a video accompanied by what would become her first performance. The work was initially conceived in the shadow of the looming Iraq War (2003–11). Charfi, who had watched the first Gulf War unfold on television while anxiously rolling Abérics between her fingers, now brought a similar scene into the gallery as a deliberate mise-en-abyme. In the video, an unidentifiable figure surrounded by dozens of small red paper pellets faces the viewer. The pellets, which Charfi called “red seeds,” marked a new development in her visual vocabulary.

Where the Abérics, in their twisted configurations, register and hold the weight of grief and suffering, the red seeds propose a counter-gesture. Designed to be unfolded, handled, and cared for, they offer, however symbolically, the possibility of release from that pain. In the video, a pair of hands slowly unfolds the red seeds one by one, revealing their heart-shaped forms before releasing them to drift freely across the frame. The same seeds reappear in the installation space, scattered atop laminated photographic bands of Abérics.

Emerging, in Charfi’s words, from a “desire to call for peace,” the red seeds also became an invitation to act. They formed the basis of the performative format she called L’Offrande (The Offering), first presented in 2002. During the performance, Charfi distributed medals, each containing a red seed that, when unfolded, revealed a delicate paper heart. She invited participants to gently open the heart and return it to the medal worn around their neck, implicating them in what she understood as a shared act of care.

Although the video and installation were presented together at Dak’Art in 2002, they were subsequently also shown as distinct works. Cry of a Child (the installation) was revisited at least three times, with three documented configurations. The version presented here appears to be the last produced in 2009.

B. Othmani