Katia is a Franco-Algerian artist and filmmaker whose practice is marked by the exploration of multiplicity and the in-between. In her video, photography and sculpture work, the artist investigates intercultural spaces, intersecting identities and their construction. As she herself says: “Fluxes of people are automatically creating hybridisations, indeed new spaces, thoughts and situations.”
For several years the Paris-based Franco-Algerian artist Katia Kaméli has explored the representation of Algerian culture and it intersection with French culture. Notably she has addressed the representation of women in the videos Nouba (2000) and Aicha (2002) and situations of immigrants in the projects Nomadic Utopia (2000) and En route pour l’aventure (2000). Her most recent video, Bledi a possible scenario (2004), is part of an ongoing series of artistic propositions, which includes a forthcoming workshop with art students in Algers (March 2006)
Bled means the land, i is the possessive in Arabic.
We get few images from Algeria, which most of the time tend to stigmatize the political and social situation that is far more complex than the established power would like to have us believe. The Algerian people, oppressed by an insidious civil war, have become paranoid, have closed their windows, searching for and dreaming of democracy through their parabolic dishes. So, Bledi in progress is the temporary title of a series of projects dealing with Algeria.
The series includes three works for the moment. Bledi, a possible script, an imaginary storyboard, a possible narration made up of overlays tracings of images gathered from the Algerian press. The film Bledi a possible scenario plays over the many layers of Algerian realities.
More of the interview at: http://katiakameli.com/katia-kameli-speaks-with-william-jeffett/
Above images taken from the Gateway series (Algeria). Below a photograph taken from the New York series.
Also she works with sound. She interviewed an Algerian taxi driver and you can listen to it on her site at http://katiakameli.com/gateway/
Could be an interesting feature for our exhibition :)
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