Algiers, Theater of Conflict and Desire

Janet Abu-Lughod Library Seminar IV: Online public lecture series

Algiers, Theater of Conflict and Desire

by Amina Menia

From 1953 to 1957, the Deputy-Mayor of Algiers Jacques Chevallier appointed Fernand Pouillon to undertake social housing projects for the benefit of Algerians living in poverty. This ambitious program was meant to reduce the blatant inequalities between Europeans and the indigenous population. This is how the estates of Diar Es-Saâda, Diar El-Mahçoul and Climat de France came to be with Pouillon’s signature style.

At the same time as the launch of this “housing battle”, another battle breaks out: the Algerian War for Independence. The images in Menia’s film A Peculiar Family Album (2012), realised by Chevallier’s collaborator, don’t show this context. They focus on the buildings rising from the ground, on inspections, site visits and the countless inauguration ceremonies. Nevertheless, they really depict the making of what would transform the face of the capital city.

Through these images, Menia explores the key sequence in the architectural, social and political history of Algiers. The narration is auto-fictive, interspersed with historical references.

This lecture is open to the public: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88370179979

Meeting ID: 883 7017 9979

This lecture is part of the 4th Janet Abu-Lughod Library Seminar, Superheat taught by Ala Younis.

Amina Menia lives and works in Algiers. Her work actively questions relations between memory, local history, urban space, and architecture. Employing sculpture, photography, and installation, her architectural interventions are an invitation to re-evaluate the production of public space. Often departing from the post-colonial history and politics of her native Algiers, she investigates highly-charged narratives, revisits urban legends, and points out associations to urban gaps and their potential as political tools.

Amina has shown her work internationally, including at the Cleveland Museum of Art (USA), the Royal Hibernian Academy (Dublin), the Museum of African Design (Johannesburg), the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Palais de Tokyo (Paris). She participated in the 11th Sharjah Biennial (UAE), the Dakar Biennial 2014 (Senegal) as well as Folkestone Triennial 2014 (UK) and BRUGGES Triennial 2015. She spent a long-term residency in the city of Marseilles, working on the common architectural heritage of Algiers and Marseilles through the figure of architect Fernand Pouillon.