"Independent Algeria – Art, Architecture and Ideology in the Postcolony".

Online, 05.–06.03.2026
Format: Online conference
Admission: Free of charge
Access: Open to the public (online participation)
Registration: The webinar link will be published on the official website prior to the event.
https://www.khist.uzh.ch/de/chairs/moderne/events/IndependentAlgeria0.html

PROGRAMME

THURSDAY MARCH 5: Space, Power, and the Colonial Legacy

This day investigates the built environment and urban heritage as critical tools for nation-building, focusing on how architectural production and the management of historic urban cores functioned as sites for ideological self-representation and the materialization of state sovereignty in post-independence Algeria.

13:45-14:00 Opening Remarks Dominique Lounés Laleg (University of Zurich)

14:00-15:00 Panel 1: The Casbah of Algiers: Between Colonial Heritage and Micropolitical Agency I (Chair: Dominique Lounés Laleg, University of Zurich)

Asma Hadjilah (EPAU Alger): Alger face à son héritage colonial : préservation patrimoniale et enjeux identitaires

Sidi Mohammed el Habib Benkoula (Département d’architecture d’Oran): L’héritage historique pluriel en crise : entre mémoire, idéologie et conflit

- 15’ Break -

15.15-16.15 Panel 2: The Casbah of Algiers: Between Colonial Heritage and Micropolitical Agency II (Chair: Katja Schröck, ZI Munich)

Ramy Benaferi (École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville): L'architecture comme écrin d'une ambivalence : entre schismes et mutabilités

Magda Maaoui (Harvard Graduate School of Design): Knock the Casbah: The Micropolitics of Renovation, Displacement, and Environmental Health Injustice in a Gentrifying Medina

- 45’ Break -

17:00-18:30 Panel 3: Transnational Modernism: Architecture as a Medium of Diplomatic Solidarity (Chair: Dominique Lounés Laleg, University of Zurich)

Marisa García Vergara (University of Girona): Transcultural Negotiations of Architecture, Development, and the Politics of Modernism: Ricardo Bofill’s Algerian Projects

Shivani Shedde (Princeton University/Pratt Institute in New York): Algiers: Anti-Colonial Solidarities, and the Space of Conferencing

Susan Slyomovics (University of California): Mohamed Larbi Merhoum, architecte algérien d'une modernité rayonnante, laïque et démocratique

FRIDAY MARCH 6: Postcolonial Imaginaries: Institutions, Networks, and Contested Identities

This day analyzes the development of the visual arts and the formalization of national cultural institutions as primary sites for identity construction, exploring the persistent negotiations and tensions that emerged between revolutionary state ideology and indigenous cultural resistance.

10:00-11:30 Panel 4: Material Sovereignty: Restitution, Museums, and the Infrastructure of Memory (Chair: Annabel Ruckdeschel, University of Zurich)

Lydia Hamiti (Université de Poitiers): L’estampe en Algérie après l’indépendance : entre héritage colonial et réappropriation nationale

Katarzyna Falecka (Newcastle University): On Artistic Exchanges between Algeria and the former Eastern Bloc

Camille Kaiser (Genève): Fatigue d’archives. Recherche artistique sur les transferts post-coloniaux d’œuvres et d’objets d’art entre l’Algérie et la France

- 15’ Break -

11.45-13:15 Panel 5: A Laboratory of Strategies: PANAF 1969 and the Transformation of Diplomatic Image Politics (Chair: Dominique Lounés Laleg, University of Zurich)

Youri Hammache-Sigour (Université Paris Nanterre/Università La Sapienza di Roma): La place des arts au Panaf d'Alger 1969 : entre support du nouveau discours national algérien et porte-voix des luttes décoloniales

Connie Sjӧdin (University of Oxford): Demolish the Desert… Create the Continent: Visual Arts at PANAF 69

Abdelkrim Boukachabia (Université de Genève): Les enjeux et développements de la politique migratoire de l’Algérie depuis l’indépendance

- 60’ Break -

14:15-15:15 Panel 6: Social Intervention: Muralism, Collectives, and Revolutionary Pedagogy (Chair: Abigael van Alst, University of Zurich)

Julian Volz (Leuphana University Lüneburg): Demystifying Easel Painting: The role of Muralism in the campaigns in support of the Algerian Agrarian Revolution

Lydia Haddag (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne): Collectifs d’artistes et politiques culturelles dans l’Algérie post-indépendance (1962-1990) : entre idéologie et institutionnalisation

- 30’ Break -

15:45-17:15 Panel 7: Contested Identities: Abstraction, Cultural Roots, and the Politics of Belonging (Chair: Abigael van Alst, University of Zurich)

Hannah Feldman (University of Pennsylvania): Art Elements for a new People

Cynthia Becker (Boston University): Denis Martinez’s 7 murs revisités, 1989: Engaging with the Politics of Belonging in Algeria

Arianna Desideri (Università La Sapienza di Roma): Algiers from Rome: Amazigh Resistance in the Work of Ali Kichou