Tacapae is a cultural project rooted in southern Tunisia, where contemporary art meets centuries-old olive groves.

Tacapae is an olive oil and art project founded by French-Tunisian artist Faouzi Khlifi, known as eL Seed. Born from a desire to reconnect with land, heritage, and craft, it brings together artists, designers, and makers to create collectible objects and experiences rooted in southern Tunisia. At its core is an exceptional olive oil produced in Gabès, home to one of the world’s only sea oases. 

Each run of limited-edition bottles is reimagined by a different renowned artist — who is curated by eL Seed and given full creative freedom to design the bottle’s visual identity. 

Through collaboration and storytelling, Tacapae transforms olive oil into a platform for contemporary art, resulting in collectible bottles meant to be kept, cherished, and enjoyed.

Tacapae takes its name from the Amazigh word Takabbast, meaning “fortified place”, and from the ancient city of Tacapaes, now known as Gabès.

The Oil

Our land

Tacapae is based in Temoula, a small village in the Gabès region of southern Tunisia. Set between the mountains and the sea, the area is home to a rare coastal oasis where palm trees, olive groves, and saltwater exist side by side.

The vast majority of our olive trees are of the Chemlali variety, but we also cultivate Sarrazi olive trees. These two types of olive trees are typical of southern Tunisia and are grown on agricultural land we inherited from our parents and grandparents.

The olive trees here have been cared for over generations using traditional, chemical-free practices that follow the natural pace of the land. This place quietly shapes our work from the flavor of the oil to the collaborations with artists, and the stories we choose to tell.

Our harvest

The harvest marks the most important moment of the year. The process begins at sunrise, when our family and local harvesters from nearby villages gather in our groves in Temoula to handpick the olives at their peak ripeness. The harvest is done entirely by hand, using traditional methods passed down through generations, to preserve the integrity of the fruit and protect the trees. 

The olives are collected in woven baskets, then immediately transported to the local mill to be cold-pressed within hours. This process ensures the highest quality possible and preserves the oil’s full flavor and nutritional value.

The quality and preservation of our olive oil

Our olive oil reflects the care we put into every step. The olives are organically grown, and both our trees and soil are certified organic. We oversee the whole process, ensuring quality from start to finish.

The olives are picked when they’re at their peak ripeness, then quickly taken to an organic-certified mill in Zarzis, southern Tunisia. This ensures the oil maintains its fresh flavor and nutritional value, with every drop coming from the same careful process that fills each Tacapae bottle.

Designed by Artists

At the heart of Tacapae are collaborations with artists, with three to four new editions released each year. 

These artists are carefully selected by eL Seed, who curates each collaboration. For every edition, a renowned artist is invited to reimagine the Tacapae bottle, whether through its form, its visual identity, or both. Each artist is given complete creative freedom to design the bottle in their own artistic language and create a collectible object.

The process begins in October during the annual Tacapae olive harvest. Artists are invited to Gabès to experience the season, connect with local artisans, and explore the region’s culinary and cultural heritage. 

Each edition becomes a reflection of this encounter, honoring both the artist’s universe and the legacy of olive oil in southern Tunisia.

Crafting the Bottle

Each Tacapae bottle is created in close collaboration with Alfonso Soto Cerámica, a southern Spain studio renowned for its refined, small-batch ceramics. Together, we design custom forms that reflect each artist’s vision while honoring the function and materiality of traditional olive oil vessels. 

Every bottle is hand-shaped, giving it a unique character, then slowly cooled in a “lehr” oven and carefully finished by hand to ensure quality. Made from high-quality stoneware ceramic, the bottles are non-toxic, low in oxidation, and fully food-safe, preserving the oil’s natural properties. Crafted in La Rambla, a village with a rich history of olive oil and ceramics, these bottles combine practical elegance with centuries of Mediterranean artisanal tradition.

eL Seed

“I remember how beautiful the land was.

Thirty-one century-old trees stood there proudly. The estate agent asked me who my father was.

I gave his name. He replied, “These trees were planted by your great-grandfather.”

The deal was done. That was the beginning of my journey with olive oil.”

eL Seed, Tacapae founder

Hassan Hajjaj

Hassan Hajjaj’s vibrant, boldly colourful portraits express evolving notions of self and society in today’s globalised, hyperconnected world. Photographing his subjects outfitted in fashions of his own design and situated in studios he builds himself, the artist blends, juxtaposes and mirrors the traditional Moroccan motifs of his heritage with contemporary signifiers of global style and consumption. Hajjaj then builds custom frames for the resulting photographs and fills them with a variety of consumer products labelled with Arabic text, each item permutating in a repetitive manner, creating an interplay between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture and mimicking the tiled designs of traditional Islamic architecture.

Hajjaj brought his vibrant world to Tacapae through the design of three limited edition bottles. His edition draws inspiration from roadside mile markers, hand-painted oil cans, vibrant kiosks, and bold street signs, which he encountered throughout his journey in Gabès, reinterpreting them in his signature style.

FUTURA 

FUTURA (b. Leonard Hilton McGurr, 1955, New York, NY) is an artist whose practice first developed within the genre of graffiti in New York City during the 1970s. He was among the earliest artists to introduce abstraction into the art form and among the first to break barriers and show in contemporary art galleries in the early 1980s. The artist is regarded as one of the world’s most dynamic collaborators and has built a rich oeuvre of intersectional work with fellow artists and creatives—across multiple genres. 

Collaborating with Tacapae, FUTURA approached the olive oil bottle as an abstract surface for expression. His design channels movement, energy, and the organic flow of nature.

“my biggest takeaway was, I didn’t know the olive trees can communicate with one another. so as we were participating in the actual harvesting, I was speaking to a few of them, I think one of them truly responded”

Futura

Alexandre Farto aka Vhils

Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto began interacting visually with the urban environment under the name of Vhils as graffiti writer in the early 2000s. Peeling back the layers of our material culture like a contemporary urban archaeologist, Vhils reflects on the impact of urbanity, development, and increased uniformity on landscapes and people’s identities around the globe. 

In 2025, after the Tacapae Harvest, Vhils and eL Seed launched the Olive Project, a collaboration exploring family, memory, and identity through olive trees across the globe. They began with two murals in Gabès and Marvão, honoring each other’s heritage through portraits of their fathers. This dialogue continues in a limited edition of 1,000 bottles—500 featuring eL Seed’s father, 500 Vhils’ grandfather—laser-etched on ceramic to capture the texture of Vhils’ carving. Each bottle becomes a sculptural object, reflecting the visual language of their murals while celebrating the tradition of olive oil.

The Tacapae Harvest

The Tacapae Harvest is our annual gathering that brings together friends, artists, and our extended community to experience the olive harvest at its source. 

Held among the groves in Temoula, the event invites guests to join in the picking, learn about traditional methods, and share meals that celebrate the flavors of the region. It is both a cultural moment and a seasonal ritual, offering a close look at the land and the craft behind our olive oil. 

The harvest event captures the spirit of Tacapae through connection, creativity, and the simple joy of being among the trees.

The Tacapae Lunch: A Culinary Ritual Rooted in the Land

The Tacapae Harvest Lunch is a shared table set in the heart of the groves, where guests gather after a morning among the trees. The meal highlights the region’s seasonal flavors with dishes prepared using freshly pressed olive oil from the previous day’s harvest. 

Each year, we invite visionary chefs, those known for their creativity and respect for local flavors, to join us in Gabès for a five-day micro-residency. During this time, they source, experiment, and prepare a menu built entirely from the land. The ingredients are local. The pace is slow. The process is instinctive and deeply collaborative. 

It is a relaxed moment that brings together our family, farmers, artists, and visitors to enjoy good food, warm conversation, and the landscape that inspires our work.

The 2025 Harvest

The 2025 Tacapae Harvest welcomed friends, artists, and collaborators from around the world to Gabès for a few days of olive picking and experiencing the region. Guests joined us on the farm to harvest olives, explore local traditions, spend time with our family, and enjoy an exceptional meal prepared by chef in residence Valentin Amine Rafalli. Among those who joined were Futura, OSGEMEOS, Manal Al Dowayan, and Gail Gosschalk, alongside many others.

(video recap coming soon)

Chef Valentin Amine Raffali and his team — Megan Moore , Alexis Fehlmann, and Amine Bejaoui — crafted an unforgettable meal for 60 guests at our Temoula farm.

Arriving days ahead of the harvest, they immersed themselves in the rhythm of Gabès: milking the cow at dawn for ricotta and dessert, visiting the market by 8 a.m., and selecting meat at the butcher by 11 a.m. Every step was intentional, rooted in observation, presence, and the use of local ingredients, allowing time for the process to unfold slowly.

The centerpiece of the meal was Allouche fel Kolla علوش فالقلّة, accompanied by Omek Houria salad, smoked ricotta, and a unique tomato creation dubbed no name tomato. Latifa joined with her baking tools, preparing fresh Tabouna bread beneath an olive tree. Words cannot capture the full magic of the table, but the joy shared by all said it perfectly.

Guests gathered on Hssira mats under the olive trees, sharing plates and stories, celebrating the harvest, the land, and one another.

The 2024 Harvest

The 2024 Tacapae Harvest was the first gathering on our family farm in Gabès, surrounded by the century-old olive trees that anchor Tacapae. Guests, including Hassan Hajjaj, Alexandre Farto (aka Vhils), Noor Tagouri, and Sumayya Vally, joined us to harvest olives, experience local traditions, and share in the stories behind how we produce our olive oil. The Tacapae Lunch by Akreme Ben Ali and Paolo Boscaro highlighted the fresh flavors of the season, creating moments of connection around the table. 

More than a harvest, the event was a celebration of the land, the people, and the culture that shape this region. Bringing together an international community in the spirit of authenticity, inclusion, and a shared love for our home, Gabès.

Art & Editions

We invite artists from around the world to Temoula, Gabès to create murals and share their work in dialogue with the landscape and local culture. 

The olive groves and surrounding village become a canvas, where each artist brings their unique vision while engaging with the rhythms, colors, and stories of the region.

Futura x Osgemeos x eL Seed

During the 2025 harvest, street art legends Futura and OSGEMEOS came to Temoula to paint a mural in the heart of the village.

The Olive Project

The Olive Project is a cultural initiative linking Marvão, Portugal, and Gabès, Tunisia, through the shared heritage of the olive tree. Conceived and realized by Tacapae’s founder Faouzi Khlifi aka eL Seed and Alexandre Farto aka Vhils, the project highlights olive trees and the dialogue they spark between cultures, landscapes, and histories. By uniting two regions deeply rooted in olive cultivation, the Olive Project celebrates resilience, memory, and exchange in the lives and lineages of the two artists and everyone involved in olive cultivation.

The project takes the physical form of dual murals created together by eL Seed and Vhils. One in Marvão, and one in Temoula. The mural in Marvão depicts Faouzi’s father and the mural in Gabes depicts Alexandre’s grandfather. 

Olive trees speak the same language, the farmers are the interpreters.

eL Seed

Futura’s mural

In June 2025, Futura joined us for a trip to Temoula, near Gabès, Tunisia where our farm is located. It was his first trip to Tunisia but won’t be the last. 

We spent a few days exploring the farm, the nearby town, and at the heart of it all was a mural that Futura painted on a wall near our cousin Boulbaba’s corner store. The design is inspired by the organic flow of the atomic elements and the organic nature of planting, growing, nurturing and harvesting that he witnessed on our farm.

GABÈS 1447 — An open-air exhibition by Hassan Hajjaj

April 27 – May 1, 2025

GABÈS 1447 was an exclusive solo exhibition by Hassan Hajjaj held in the heart of Tacapae’s olive grove in Temoula, Gabès. 

The show transformed the grove into an immersive space where art and nature met. Hajjaj’s portraits, created during the 2024 Tacapae Harvest, captured artists, harvesters, family, and friends. 

Nestled in the grove that inspired them, the works celebrated community, collaboration, and the vibrant energy of those present, offering visitors a chance to experience the spirit of the harvest through Hajjaj’s lens.

Through the Eyes of Hassan Hajjaj

Through the Eyes of Hassan Hajjaj is a photo book that captures Tacapae and its harvest in Gabès, southern Tunisia, through the perspective of the artist himself. 

Hassan Hajjaj, the first artist to collaborate with Tacapae, documented the October 2024 harvest, capturing both the work on the farm and the people who gathered there. He continued this practice during his April 2025 exhibition, Gabès 1447, held in the olive groves. 

The book brings together these photographs, combining staged portraits and spontaneous snapshots taken on his phone, revealing his dual approach as an artist: highly composed and stylised on one hand, instinctive and observant on the other. Together, the images offer a layered portrait of Hajjaj’s vision, celebrating the harvest, the land, and the community that brings Tacapae to life.