Zineb Sedira “Les rêves n'ont pas de titre - Dreams have no Titles” French Pavilion Venice Biennale Art Exhibition

Zineb Sedira was born in Gennevilliers in 1963; she lives in London and works in Algiers, London and Paris. His works are exhibited in the French Pavilion of the Biennale at the Giardini.

Born in Gennevilliers, Zineb Sedira had, from childhood, the pleasure of going to the cinema with her father to see Egyptian films, peplums and westerns.

She was also able to discover the films of the great filmmakers by attending the “Cinéma des Familles” which became the “Cinéma d'Arte et d'Essais Jean Vigo” in 1978.

This municipal cinema is one of the sources of inspiration for the artist of Algerian origin, who has developed a polymorphic work combining autobiographical narrative with fiction, and documentary to deal with political issues such as decolonization, immigration to France, or the problem of migratory flows to Europe.

In 2011, Zineb Sedira founded “aria”, an acronym for “artist residency in Algiers”, an artist residency that supports the development of the contemporary art scene in Algeria.

Aria is the headquarters of the Algerian artistic family of Zineb Sadira.

In 2017, while consulting the archives of the Algerian film library for the first time, she discovered that the cinema developed after independence (1962) adhered to Third World values and aesthetics.

She felt close to this militant and anti-colonial current inspired by the Cuban model; that is why in her project realized here, she wanted to recall that in France and especially Italy, directors co-produced films with Algeria between 1960 and 1980.

The film that particularly interested Zineb Sedira is “Les mains Libres”, shot by Ennio Lorenzini in 1964-65 with Mohamed Zinet as assistant director.

The premiere of this first Algerian full-length film in colour took place in 1965 at the Cinéma Afrique in Algiers.

A month later, it was presented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

“Les Mains Libres” was an emancipation film proposing to the Algerian people “to recover after so many decades of oblivion and obscurantism” which was then screened in Italy and Algeria in 1966, to quickly disappear from the screens and fell into the oblivion of the general public.

Based in England since 1988, Zineb Sedira presents a work that wants to recall the ties that united three centres of committed cinema production of the 1960s and 1970s, a time of hope and optimism that translated into universalist dreams of freedom and equality.

The carefree era of the “peace and love” of the hippies and the revolutionary utopias of those who dreamed of a “big night”.

Zineb Sedira was born in Gennevilliers in 1963, she lives in London and works in Algiers, London and Paris. Her works are exhibited in the French Pavilion of the Biennale at the Giardini.

Zineb Sedira, Les rêves n'ont pas de titre