About
Building space for women and gender minorities in culture.
I work at the intersection of gender justice, cultural production and institutional development. For more than a decade I have built platforms, funds and networks that give women and gender minorities across the Global South real access to the creative economy — not as beneficiaries, but as authors of their own work.
That work takes many shapes: a co-working studio in Tunis, a cross-regional network based in Belgium, artist residencies, research, mentoring, and a lot of conversations in rooms that were not designed for us.
Before that I ran GIZ's regional programme on women's economic empowerment — an experience that shaped a conviction I still hold: culture does not change through statements, it changes through budgets, contracts and governance.
Creativity as a tool for structural change.
Trajectory
- 2024
Roaming with the Dutch Art Institute
Begins an artistic research trajectory across European cities while continuing to lead FEMENA.
- 2023
Regional funding for FEMENA
FEMENA secures cross-regional support to promote female talent in electronic music and visual arts.
- 2021
FEMENA Network founded
A Belgium-based international association is created to support artists across the Global South.
- 2017
La Fabrique Art Studio
Co-founds an inclusive creative platform in Tunis supporting emerging cultural entrepreneurs.
- 2014
GIZ — Women's Economic Empowerment
Country manager for a regional programme on women's economic participation.
Work
Structures, not gestures.
Long-term commitments, each designed to keep existing without me.
2021 —
FEMENA Network
Founder · Belgium · cross-regional
An international association supporting artists and creatives in collective efforts to address complex challenges in the Global South.
FEMENA champions early to mid-career women and gender minorities working in electronic music and visual arts. The network runs workshops, residencies, mentoring and cross-border collaborations, and produces research on the working conditions of women in the MENA music scene. Its ambition is structural: not one-off visibility, but durable infrastructure — contracts, fees, safer spaces, and career paths that do not depend on goodwill.
Read more
2017 —
La Fabrique Art Studio
Co-founder · Tunis, Tunisia
An inclusive art studio and co-working platform supporting the next generation of creative entrepreneurs in Tunisia.
La Fabrique began as a shared space and became a training ground: production studios, workshops, incubation for creative businesses, and a programme that has helped a generation of female DJs and producers step onto stages that had been closed to them. It remains a place where technical skill, business literacy and community defence are taught in the same room.
2022 —
Bridjing Womxn
Co-lead · Europe · MENA
A cross-border programme connecting womxn artists, curators and organisers between Europe and the MENA region.
Bridjing Womxn builds practical bridges — bookings, co-productions, exchange residencies and shared advocacy — between scenes that admire each other from a distance but rarely work together. The programme pays attention to what usually breaks these collaborations: visas, budgets, translation and credit.
2024 —
Dutch Art Institute
Roaming researcher / MA candidate · Arnhem, Netherlands
An ongoing artistic research practice on diaspora, memory and the politics of belonging.
A roaming, itinerant programme that moves between cities each month. The research asks a question that runs through all of the work: where am I coming from, and where am I returning to — and who gets to decide what counts as home, archive or authorship.
Speaking
Speaking in rooms that were not built for us.
Past
- October 2025
Artist residencies as infrastructure
WOMEX 25
Tampere, Finland - April 2025
Panels of the JMC — visibility for women in the music industry
Journées Musicales de Carthage
Tunis, Tunisia - October 2024
The creation of FEMENA Network & female advocacy in the music industry
Amsterdam Dance Event — XP Conversations
Amsterdam, Netherlands - October 2023
Womxn and gender diversity in the MENA music industry
WOMEX — The Sonic Session
Porto, Portugal - June 2022
Where am I coming from, and where am I returning to?
Lecture performance
Brussels, Belgium
Media
In the press
- Euronews · 2022
Female DJs step up and break taboos in Tunisia
Feature
- maft magazine · 2021
Female DJs stepping up: interview with Olfa Arfaoui
Interview
- Amsterdam Dance Event · 2024
Olfa Arfaoui — artist, FEMENA Network, La Fabrique Art Studio
Speaker profile
- AFAC · 2024
FEMENA Network: promoting female talents in electronic music and visual arts
Project
Working together
Strategy advice, programme design, gender assessment, facilitation and speaking — for cultural institutions, funders, festivals and civil society organisations.
Get in touch