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Dipti Nair
Doha
In these digital times, multimedia art is gaining popularity as a way to express points of view.
Zineb Sedira is a multimedia artist whose work is currently on display at Virginia Commonwealth University's art gallery. Her exhibition is titled 'Now You See Me - Now You See Me', and is based on an essay by Jalal Toufic. The title signifies God's ability to renew existence through creation.
Sidera, who was born in Paris to Algerian parents and is now based in London, is very familiar with displacement and mobility and most of her works display the interplay between memory, relocation and history. Her work usually involves serene yet haunting photographs and video installations.
This solo show of her recent works includes both the video installation 'Gardiennes d'image (Image Keepers)' and selected works from her recent series on the routes and origins of sugar. The exhibition has been curated by VCUQatar Assistant Professor of Art History Holiday Powers.
'Image Keepers' focuses on the archive of Algerian photographer Mohammed Kouaci that is held by his wife Safia. The installation forms two separate parts: one, a double projection with black and white on one side and colour and sound on the other, is 19 minutes long, while the other, a single video projection with colour and sound is 30 minutes long.
The videos focus on the role of the photographer in the Algerian war for independence and showcase some of the photographs included in the archive. The installation also recounts the close personal history of the couple and the challenges of archiving the collection.
"Mohammed Kouaci died 15 years ago," said Zineb Sedira."His wife has the collection of photographs taken by him which is around 50-60 years old. She is struggling now with what to do about them and is worried about the state of the negatives and how to preserve and conserve the collection.
"It's a very important archive because it is about the Algerian struggle for independence and the war of liberation, which lasted over eight years. These photographs which are from that period, talk about colonisation and the post-colonial history in Algeria and so are a very important part of Algerian history. But no one is actually doing anything to preserve it and make it accessible to other people," she said.
Sedira said that some of Kouaci's photographs were shown to her by a friend after which she met with Safia in Algiers.
"When I met Safia, I was really touched by her personality, her knowledge, her involvement in the revolution as a freedom fighter and her immense love for her husband. The photographs themselves are very diverse and of a high quality aesthetically. The archive is very different from any other photographs on the Algerian war, because he is the only Algerian photographer to have closely followed the Algerian revolution, the independence in 1962 and the aftermath. All the other photographs that we see from around that period are taken by the French. The photographs show a very unique perspective and portray Algerian history in a new way."
Sedira says that she would like to help Safia find an institution that would scan, preserve and store the archive, which are now stored in boxes in Algiers.
"I have showed 'Image Keepers' at least 25 times around the world, and while people have contacted me to write about Kouaci, nobody has yet contacted me to preserve or conserve the archives. It is a costly enterprise but I'm sure it will happen with more and more people being made aware of the situation. The archive needs to be in a university and deserves to be accessed by students and researchers. My main aim of the video 'Image Keepers' is to give visibility to Kouaci's work and understate the urgency of doing something to help the collection."
The other works in her exhibition at VCUQ 'Sugar Silo' focuses on the history of sugar and its routes of production. The photograph of the sugar silo has been taken in France's Port of Marseille and shows a monumental pyramid of sugar, as well as empty space in the silo, after the sugar has been exported to its different destinations.
Also part of the exhibition is an installation called 'Seafaring', where the artist presents varying strains of sugar in 15 small glass bottles on a wooden shelf. The sugar has been obtained from specific places like the Antilles, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, Swaziland, and Zambia.
"I am very concerned with displacement and mobility of people and goods. And the 'Sugar Silo' exhibit is about trade coming from Africa and South America to the Port of Marseille in France. I have used sugar, first of all because at Marseille, sugar constitutes the largest trade and also because sugar for me is a reminder of sand. It forms a very interesting analogy with skin colour and also slavery, which as per history, are all closely connected. We live in a globalised world and while some sugar is really white, some is much darker and that's our reality. That is what I have tried to depict with my exhibition."
Sedira may not live in Algeria but this is where her heart feels at home and for this reason she has opened up an art project called 'aria' to help local artists.
"I love Algeria. Unfortunately I didn't grow up there but I went there a lot as a child and as an adult. I always wanted, as an artist, to reconnect with Algeria and share my knowledge and expertise and that is why I opened up a residency project there in 2011. Algerians struggle to get visas to travel and the local scene is small how can you be an artist if you can't see art? And Western curators don't go to Algeria, partly because it is a French-speaking country. Lastly, there's no tourism and the country is often portrayed as a 'dangerous' place. So, we invited artists to come into Algeria and it has been quite successful. It is always interesting for local artists to meet international artists who come and conducts a talk or workshop, which is enlightening.
"For me, this is very important. It is a country that inspires me a lot, even after all these years. And instead of always taking images, stories etc, I want to be able to give back also."
"There is a big divide between the Northern African countries like Morocco and Algeria and the Middle East. We are rarely ever invited to this region. Even though we are all Arabs we are very different from each other. Exhibitions like this are important for me as I get to discover about other Arabs to add to my knowledge and experience and also for them to discover a new country and its history," she said.
You can also get your slice of Algerian history at VCUQatar where the exhibition 'Now You See me Now You See Me' will be on display till December 10.
COVER PHOTO: The 'Sugar Silo' with its huge pyramid of sugar
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