“Dreams Have No Titles” : screening and discussion with Zineb Sedira

Tuesday 3 October, 7.00 pm
Salle cinéma Michel Piccoli, Villa Medici
Discussion in English
Free event

Screening of Zineb Sedira‘s film installation Dreams Have No Titles and Ennio Lorenzini‘s film Les Mains libres, followed by a discussion between Zineb Sedira and Luca Peretti.

Event organised in partnership with the British School at Rome.

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There are no plans to record or rebroadcast this event.

In this meeting, Zineb Sedira talks about the project she presented at the Venice Biennale 2022: Dreams Have No Titles, a work centred on militant cinema and co-productions between Algeria, France and Italy. It was during her research for the Biennial that she discovered Les Mains libres, a little-known film made in 1964. It was the first Algerian production on the international scene, directed by the Italian filmmaker Ennio Lorenzini (1934-1982). After the screening of Dreams Have No Titles and Les Mains libres, Zineb Sedira discusses these two productions with Luca Peretti, an historian of Italian cinema and culture.

Restoration of the film Les Mains libres

Several months after the start of its investigation, a 35mm print was found at the AAMOD – Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico and restored thanks to the Cinematheque of Bologna, in collaboration with Casbah Entertainment and the Cinematheque of Alger. The restoration work corrected the technical problems associated with the print and restored the original black and white of the archive sequences shot in colour.

Les Mains libres

This film reveals a multifaceted Algeria, newly created in colour and far from the simplistic clichés conveyed by the press and the French army. For the first time, it is possible to see images covering the whole of Algeria, bearing witness to the richness of its landscapes and the diversity of its traditions. Using the aesthetics of militant cinema, Les Mains Libres showcases precious archive material from the Algerian War, bearing political witness to the lingering traces of colonisation and the negotiations that followed Algeria’s accession to independence.

Running time: 56 min
French VO, Italian ST

Dreams Have No Titles

This film installation won Zineb Sedira a special mention at the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. In it, the artist addresses a major turning point in the history of cultural, intellectual and avant-garde production in the 1960s, 1970s and beyond, particularly in France, Italy and Algeria. Alongside her artistic practice, Zineb Sedira has based her work around an autobiographical narrative, halfway between fiction and documentary, highlighting international solidarity, past and present, linked to historic liberation struggles.

She focuses on a body of co-productions and cinematographic productions, particularly of a militant nature, which have had an impact on post-colonial movements.

English VO

Zineb Sedira

Zineb Sedira lives in London and works between Paris, Algiers and London. Over the past 25 years, Zineb Sedira has developed a sensitive artistic approach, focusing on migration, narrative and the biases of official history.

For her, artistic creation is an act of resistance: against oblivion, against hegemonies and against the status quo. This is particularly evident in her project Dreams have no titles (2022), which received a special mention from the jury at the Venice Biennale, where the artist represented France. In 2021, she gave a lecture at the Villa Medici to present her project, along with Yasmina Reggad (co-curator of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale).

Her work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions at the Tate Britain (London, 2002); the Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2004, 2009); the Photographer’s Gallery (London, 2006); the Musée d’Art Moderne d’Alger (2007); the Palais de Tokyo (France, 2010); Prefix-Institute of Contemporary Art (Toronto, 2010); Blaffer Art Museum (Houston, 2013); Smithsonian (Washington, 2015); Beirut Art Center (Lebanon, 2018); Liverpool Biennale (UK, 2021); French Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (Italy, 2022).

TO PROLONG THE DISCUSSION

Discussion with Zineb Sedira and Morad Montazami
Wednesday 4 October, 6pm
British School at Rome

Zineb Sedira will be in conversation with Villa Medici resident Morad Montazami at the British School at Rome on Wednesday 4 October. They will discuss the more technical and methodological aspects of his work, from the beginning of his career to the present day.