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Venue
Teloglion Foundation of Art / Thessaloniki French Institute / Museum of Byzantine Culture
Artist
Zineb Sedira
 Artists's biography |
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Saphir, Two-channel video installation, 2006 |
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The title Saphir (French for sapphire) reflects this, evoking not only the pure maritime light typical of Algiers, but also those flickering glimmers on the horizon that symbolise people's dreams and aspirations. In Arabic, the word safir also means 'ambassador', a person who travels between different places, the representative of one country on the soil of another.
This play on meaning is extended through two central characters in the film. The first is an Algerian man who walks across town, with no apparent purpose, and silently watches the ferries arriving and departing to France. His image is counterpoised by that of an older woman, a daughter of the pieds noirs (a term for those European settlers who left Algeria after its Independence). She inhabits the Safir Hotel, one of the grand landmarks of French colonial Algiers, whose imposing architecture is a powerful and resonant reminder of a past that still casts its light and shadow over the city.
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