The Franco-Algerian artist Zineb Sedira’s exhibition at Tate Britain explores radical film-making from the 1960s and 1970s, presenting it as both a manifesto and an aesthetic arrangement. The show focuses on La Cinémathèque Algérienne, a hub for leftist African filmmakers founded in 1965, and its director Boudjemaâ Karèche, whose beret-wearing style epitomises the era’s intellectual cool.
Sedira recreates an Algerian cafe in Paris circa 1974, complete with a jukebox, wine, couscous, and books on leftist cinema. This installation argues that intellectual life and pleasure are not mutually exclusive, embodying a Francophone ideal of discussing injustice while enjoying drinks with friends. The artist, born in Paris to Algerian parents and based in London since 1986, makes no claim to impartiality, instead reconstructing a sense of home from Algeria’s liberation history.
The exhibition’s details are meticulously crafted: a vintage jukebox plays clips from Agnès Varda’s Salut les Cubains, still images are animated, and a mobile cinema interior is faithfully reproduced. A photograph of James Baldwin and a Palestinian pennant suggest artistic solidarity. However, the final film highlights a difficulty: the 2009 restaging of the 1969 Pan-African cultural festival lacked the original revolutionary energy, with artists now demanding hotels and limousines.
This raises questions about the effectiveness of restaging revolutionary moments in museums, potentially preserving them in aspic. The exhibition’s seductive charm makes viewers wish for a livelier crowd and flowing wine, yet it ultimately confronts the challenge of translating past radicalism into the present.
