Zineb Sedira

To disclose what is forgotten and repressed is central to Zineb Sedira's new work Gardiennes d'images (2010), which is having its UK premiere at the Cornerhouse Gallery. This video installation explores the photographic archive of Mohamed Kouaci, the only official photographer of the Algerian War of Independence, which ended in 1962. On three screens, London-based Sedira presents interviews of Kouaci's widow Safia, who inherited the entire photographic archive after Kouaci's death in 1997. This is an important work that not only brings to light his forgotten oeuvre, but also seeks to counter the historiography of the Algerian War, which is still controlled by the French authorities. As Kouaci's investment in presenting the atrocities from the Algerian point of view interferes with the "official" narrative of this war, his work has been rarely presented publicly. The title of the work, Gardiennes d'images, also raises the question of who keeps the Algerian version of history alive. The lack of public archives in Algeria makes the wives and daughters of those who fought in the war the sole keepers of these memories.

Link to video: http://artistresearcher.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/zineb-sedira/

Link to website with other exhibitions, the forgotten is a continuous theme: http://www.zinebsedira.com/video

The second is from her ''Shipwrecked series''