CityLife

New exhibition looks at life inside Algeria

An image by Bruno Boudjelal

Cornerhouse - to June 5, 2011

There really is no escaping the timely nature of Cornerhouse’s latest exhibition, New Cartographies: Algeria-France-UK, which takes a modern look at civil unrest in North Africa.

It is 50 years since the end of the bloody war of independence in Algeria, fought through the 1950s and 1960s to free the country from 130 years of French rule.

But even half a century later, the legacy of colonisation still influences Algeria’s relationship with the rest of the world.

Algeria’s protracted and costly struggle is currently echoed by citizen uprisings in Libya, Egypt, Syria and the Yemen. And it is a parallel that the curators of New Cartographies, Dr Joseph McGonagle (University of Manchester) and Dr Edward Welch (University of Durham), are keen to build on as they bring 10 artists together to look at the impact of Algerian liberation on politics, culture, mapping, settlement and migration in the region.

A resource rich country, Algeria has been characterised by both conflict and migration – of people and goods.

A second civil war raged until the early 1990s and many male Algerians left the country for both financial and political reasons.

There are now several established artists working in Algeria, despite existing controls on freedom of expression.

Many of the nine artists represented in New Cartographies – all of whom are Algerian or have Algerian heritage – would not get their work shown in Algeria.

Joseph and Edward asked the artists to respond to the issues thrown up in their academic research, which opened up some big questions about the relationship between the country and its people but also about how it tackles issues of freedom of expression and movement, gender and ethnicity.

They also commissioned one UK artist – documentary maker, photographer and writer John Perivolaris – to create North To North: A Journey From Manchester To The Magreb In Postcards, which documents a journey he made last summer and the challenges which he faced along the way.

The exhibition is complemented by an extentive interactive programme, including a bookable free debate at 2pm today about the future for visual arts in the Middle East, an artists’ tour tomorrow and numerous curators’ talks in both English and French.

Free. All events can be booked at www.cornerhouse.org (some events free; booking is essential).