Tunisian Collaborative Painting is an art form developed in Tunisia in the mid-1980s. It is unique in its method of allowing a group of artists to work simultaneously on a canvas without discussion or planning beforehand. The result is a painting created by a group of individuals that looks like the work of a single artist. Tunisian artist Hechmi Ghachem pioneered the form in 1988 when Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali became president and dictator of Tunisia, and it was dangerous for artists to express themselves. Hechmi Ghachem took his Brigades all over Tunisia. When a painting was finished it was given to the host who supplied the space where it was painted. Over a period of several years, hundreds of paintings were created, by artists well-known and new alike.