Samia Henni Exposes France's Nuclear Colonialism in Algeria at Mosaic Rooms

Samia Henni's solo exhibition 'Performing Colonial Toxicity' at London's Mosaic Rooms (until 16 June 2024) confronts France's secret nuclear program in the Algerian Sahara. The show presents a 'performative archive' of contraband and leaked materials, including handwritten letters, survivor diaries, and videos. France detonated four atmospheric atomic bombs and 13 underground nuclear bombs in the Sahara between 1960 and 1966, causing radioactive fallout across North, Central, and West Africa and the Mediterranean. The exhibition is part of a larger research project including the book 'Colonial Toxicity: Rehearsing French Nuclear Architecture and Landscape in the Sahara' and an open-access digital database, 'The Testimony Translation Project'. Henni, an architectural historian and educator, aims to pressure France to open its still-classified nuclear archives. The downstairs gallery features excerpts from Larbi Benchiha's 2008 documentary 'Vent de sable, le Sahara des essais nucléaires' and Élisabeth Leuvrey's 2013 film 'AT(h)OME', which give voice to survivors. Henni's edited volume 'Deserts Are Not Empty' (2022) argues that institutional obstruction of history-writing and denial of environmental justice are embedded in French coloniality.