Cultural Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of A way of surviving, a way of life…, a captivating exhibition by renowned artist Zineb Sedira. On display from 3 October 2024 to 8 March 2025, the exhibition showcases Sedira’s pioneering cinematic practice, spanning from 2002 to 2022, and her profound exploration of identity, memory, culture, and resistance.
Born in 1963 to Algerian parents, Sedira’s work explores personal narratives to illuminate broader global anxieties surrounding cultural emancipation and the complexities of diaspora. Featuring four impactful films – Dreams Have No Titles (2022), mise-en-scène (2019), Image Keepers (2010), and Mother Tongue (2002) – the exhibition offers a poignant narrative on the complexities of migration, memory, and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge.
The centerpiece installation of the exhibition, Dreams Have No Titles, is presented as a full-scale cinema box within Cultural Foundation’s atrium. This award-winning film, which premiered at the French Pavilion of the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, interweaves Sedira’s personal story and the history of anticolonial cinema in Algeria under the themes of displacement, mobility, integration, and longing. Through an autobiographical lens, Sedira examines her own life experiences against the backdrop of avant-garde cinema and diasporic narratives.
The film mise-en-scène reimagines archival footage from 1960s Algerian anti-colonial films, presenting a new narrative that highlights both Algeria’s pivotal historical moments and the collaborative spirit of activist filmmakers. The film’s grainy texture, a result of time’s effect on the original film, serves as a metaphor for the degradation of memory and the challenges of archival preservation.
Image Keepers, a video installation showcases a dual biographical portrait of photographer Mohamed Kouaci, as seen through the eyes of his widow, Safia. Through a moving interview, the installation interweaves their personal and professional lives.
One of Sedira’s most acclaimed video installations, Mother Tongue uses a triple-screen format to present conversations with three generations of women: herself, her mother, and her daughter. It explores how memory transmission evolves as a result of shifting languages across generations.
Sedira’s internationally recognized films blend archival research, oral histories, and intimate storytelling. By weaving together personal and family stories with official histories, she creates nuanced perspectives that challenge and reinterpret existing narratives, offering profound insights into both the personal and the political.
This captivating exhibition is free and accessible to all, inviting audiences to engage with Sedira’s powerful work on the ground floor of Cultural Foundation.
Press release from Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi
Image: Zineb Sedira. Dreams Have No Titles. 2022. Installation view from Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2024 © Damian Griffiths © Zineb Sedira, ADAGP, Paris, 2024. Image courtesy of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
