NADIA SEBOUSSI: ZONE DE TRANSIT

October 17 – November 8, 2014

As part of the festival The HTMlles 11, ZERO FUTUR{E}

With the support of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Foundation

Project Description

The work of Nadia Seboussi questions the immigrant status, post colonialism and the complex relationships between East and West through an approach at the crossroads of documentary, essay and video, in which installation art is used as a means to explore new narrative structures.

The exhibition Zone de transit explores the concept of migration, from personal life stories to a broader perspective on the issue. In the large exhibition room, the three videos entitled Parcours 1 and Parcours 2 make reference to the history of Algeria in the 1990’s, by drawing on the stories of three immigrants who left the country in 1994, right after the beginning of the wave of political assassinations.

Against the backdrop of night-time images of the cities that they were hoping to reach, their voices describe their experiences in tractor-trailers at borders—transition zones that seem to exist out of time and out of any legal framework—where they waited among immigrants from other countries such as Mexico, Syria, Lebanon, etc. Based on narratives from the artist’s country of origin, the work that follows in the exhibition is more abstract. Making use of a flashing sign that brings to mind a sense of urgency and of images of gazes of immigrants from various nationalities, Seboussi evokes the conditions and the universal emotions relating to immigration and exile. Beyond the stereotypes of race and class commonly attributed to migration, Seboussi presents it as a reality that affects our social reality worldwide.

The artist wishes to thank Nadia Mérou, Nacer Abad, Azzedine Achour, Chloé Turpin, Jean Pierre Mot, and all the immigrants of multiples nationalities that participated to the projects. She also thanks Gérald Collard for the making of the Exit-Exil neon.