Heba Y. Amin's Atom Elegy Confronts Nuclear Colonialism in Algeria

Key facts

• Heba Y. Amin's Atom Elegy (2022) is a photograph-cum-diorama shown for the first time in 'When I See the Future, I Close my Eyes: Chapter II'.
• The exhibition is curated by Anthony Downey.
• The work features a historical photograph of mannequins used in French nuclear tests in the Algerian desert.
• The diorama positions the figures to face a projection of destruction, giving them agency in looking.
• The title references Yvan Goll's 1942 poem that became a lament after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• The manuscript is housed at the Center for Persecuted Arts in Solingen and discussed by Jürgen Kaumkötter.
• France conducted nuclear tests in the early 1960s at Reggane Oasis, codenamed 'Gerboise Bleue,' 'Blanche,' and 'Rouge'.
• The first test was four times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
• Survivors of the tests have not been compensated by France.
• The work engages with Jalal Toufic's concept of 'the withdrawal of tradition past a surpassing disaster'.