For his first exhibition in Portugal, the artist's choice of films, "We knew how beautiful they were, these islands" and "All come from dust," creates a profound synergy with the subterranean setting of the Cave space at Solar - Galeria de Arte Cinemática, a unique environment built from overlapping stones. This symbiotic relationship between film and space instigates a subtle dialogue that excavates hidden narratives of isolation, preservation and refuge.

In "We knew how beautiful they were, these islands", we closely follow the spectral presence of a man digging graves. His bare hands transform the earth into the final resting place of nameless castaways. He defies oblivion and roots the dead in his native land. The troglodyte chambers of Matmata, a region in southern Tunisia, become sanctuaries for a displaced community, reflecting the protective embrace of underground architecture designed to blend harmoniously into the landscape and protect against invasion.  The subterranean realm becomes a shield, isolating the fragile silhouettes from the turbulence of the outside world as it protects them.

"All come from dust"  shot in the same southern Tunisian landscape-this time in Tozeur- documents the age-old practice of creating a tower that emerges from the depths of the earth, a process rooted in the region and preserved by the artist's ancestors from the passage of time. Instead of documenting the steps involved in making terracotta bricks in their proper order, Ben Slimane wanted to capture the uniqueness of the craftsmanship. He allows us to observe the deft movements of hands transforming the earth. Through his camera, he catalyses the forces and metamorphoses of the matter, as well as the ceremonial atmosphere that surrounds it, creating a cosmogonic aura.

Ben Slimane's exhibition is an allegorical representation of protection in which Solar's Cave space is the  ideal host with its stony embrace reflecting the archaic refuge depicted in the films. By exploring Ben Slimane's films, visitors are invited to dive in the parallel narratives of the gallery's 15th-century underground spaces, silently witnessing the relationship between hand gestures and millennia-old stones, resonate with their own experience.

The architectural refuge and the human stories that unfold within intertwine, shaping harmonious shreds of each film's narrative fabric. The artist works to expose the deep bond between the land and its inhabitants. In these two films, devoid of dialogue, only the hands work to shape the earth and preserve the memory: the memory of unknown migrants and outcasts, but also that of ancestral skills that honor the continuity of the human touch.