I recently visited an exhibition at the Cornerhouse, 'New Cartographies'. It brings together ten contemporary artists from Algeria, France and the UK, exploring Africa's largest country and its complex relationship with Europe as it heads towards its fiftieth year of independence. Some of the works explore memories and traces of the colonial era and the struggle that led to Algerian independence. Others examine the nature of individual identity and memory, and their relationship to the family ties that persist or break as a result of migration, dislocation or disappearance.
John Perivolaris
North to North
2011
A multimedia installation explores the theme of travel and migration through a series of journeys of discovery, departure or return. Taking us from Manchester via London and France to Algeria, North to North is a month long journey by Perivolaris, incorporating images made during the trip, and postcards he sent and received as he probed colonial and post-colonial links between the three countries. His blog explains further, with more photographs, of the project:
http://thecardographer.wordpress.com/
Yves Jeanmougin
Algeriens, freres de sang: Jean Senac, lieux de memoire (2005) is a series of images taking us back to an earlier moment in Algeri'a independence. They retrace the life of the celebrated poet Jean Senac, who championed Algerian independence. Revisiting locations associated with the poet, Jeanmougin's work encourages reflection on the French presence in Algeria before independence.
Bruno Boudjelal
Algeria From East to West
2001-2003
Photographic series
In 'Algeria from East to West', Boudjelal depicts a journey across Algeria to his father's hometown as the civil war, which scarred the country in the 1990s, drew to a close. Born in France to Algerian parents, Boudjelal finds that his journey becomes an exploration of the intricate links between personal identity, national identity and cultural memory within Algeria's complex and violent post-colonial history.
Amina Menia
Chrysanthemum
2011
A site-specific photographic installation, Amina Menia invites reflection on the presence of the past within Algeria today by exploring the place of the dead and the different monuments erected to commemorate them. Her life-size reproductions of these symbolic, and political, monuments ask us to question the relationship between mourning, commemoration and everyday life.
No comments:
Post a Comment