Zineb Sedira Explores 1969 Pan-African Festival at Goodman Gallery
Zineb Sedira, a Franco-Algerian artist, concluded her exhibition "Let's go on singing!" at the Goodman Gallery in London on March 16. The showcase focused on the 1969 Pan-African Festival in Algiers, utilizing a range of archival materials and photomontages, alongside her 2019 film "Mise-en-scène," which critiques Western narratives through damaged 1960s footage. Lightboxes featuring newspaper excerpts from Algeria served to enhance the presentation. Sedira sourced materials from the Cinémathèque Algérienne and collections in Italy and France. The festival, which celebrated Algeria’s cultural recovery post-independence, notably attracted figures such as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
Key facts
- Exhibition 'Let's go on singing!' at Goodman Gallery, London, ended March 16.
- Zineb Sedira is an Algerian-French artist.
- The show focused on the 1969 Pan-African Festival of Algiers (PANAF).
- Sedira's film 'Mise-en-scène' (2019) uses degraded 1960s film reels from an Algerian street market.
- The film exemplifies 'militant cinema'—anti-colonial, third-world art.
- Lightboxes displayed excerpts from an Algerian state newspaper from the PANAF era.
- Sedira accessed archives at Cinémathèque Algérienne, Italy, and France.
- The artwork 'For A Brief Moment the World Was on Fire… and We Have Come Back' (2019) includes photomontages, vinyl records, books, and personal items.
- Figures at PANAF included Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Ahmed Ben Bella, Yasser Arafat, and Gamal Abdel Nasser.
- Algeria's independence led to a boom in arts, music, and cinema.
Entities
Artists
- Zineb Sedira
- Wim Wenders
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Marcello Mastroianni
- Buster Keaton
- Charlie Chaplin
Institutions
- Goodman Gallery
- Cinémathèque Algérienne
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- Algiers
- Algeria
- Italy
- France