52 rue Petit
75019 Pari
France
Paris
France
- Arts
“Nostalgeria” is an exhibition project that aims to build through residencies and exchanges. It would start as a dialogue in the broadest sense between Algerian and Irish artists and expand. The hope is to create new axis of communication and friendships as well as make extremely rich cultures more visible where they haven’t been before. It would centre mainly on the visual arts (painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, film, photography) but link through events and publications with cinema, literature, music, performance and architecture. My plan is to settle the touring partners (ideally 3 or 4 museums) in the next few months and start working together. Artists and writers would be funded to travel and collaborate to create a community spirit. I need to continue my research in order to best contribute to this enabling process. This is a key diplomatic opportunity to make positive, intelligent and profound links.
The artist Zineb Sedira introduced me to Algiers in April 2009. She has asked me to contribute to her forthcoming presentation at the Palais de Tokyo following the award of the SAM Art Projects prize last year by working on an interview for the publication. I am promoting both the Algerian and Irish art scenes in France and elsewhere and hope to write more and more on the subject. This is a commitment to a specialisation which will hopefully broaden to the other countries in North Africa and the Middle East. I have ongoing discussions with curator Nadira Laggoune in Algiers and visited the Panafrican festival in Summer 2009. I am helping to find funds for Algerian artists and curators to learn English to maximise their international possibilities, as well to train new curators there and translate some of the literary texts from French or Arabic to English.