20/20 VISION: UNE PLACE VIDE DANS UN PAYSAGE

In 1991, shortly after the end of the Gulf War, filmmaker Simone Bitton recorded an encounter between Palestinian historian Elias Sanbar and French film critic Serge Daney. Sanbar is a collector of images – an exile who archives the memory of his people: press photographs, family albums, postcards, and so on. To him, the image serves as proof of his identity. By contrast, although he spent most of his life watching films, Daney always refused to keep still images.

In 2009, the Algerian football team won a match against Egypt, securing their place in the 2010 World Cup. Algerian artist Amina Menia remembers how the celebrations seemed surreal, given that both countries were experiencing political tensions, and how they reminded her of the festivities that followed the independence of Algeria in 1962.

In both films, complex geopolitical conflicts transit through history by way of personal recollections and archival images, which seem to shore each other up against the recurrence of political oppressions, the weight of history, and the erasure of collective narratives. They become and remain relevant, especially against the backdrop of the recent harassment of the Iranian football team by the US government, host of the 2026 World Cup, and the sustained violence against the Palestinian people.

Programme:

Amina Menia, National Liberation Football (2022)*
Algeria, France 19’50” French spoken, with English subtitles 

Simone Bitton, Conversation Nord-Sud : Daney/Sanbar (1991)
France 48’ French spoken, with English subtitles

*National Liberation Football is conceived and produced as a three-channel video installation, exceptionally shown at argos as a single screen screening. With the generous permission of the artist.

Dit evenement is onderdeel van 20/20 Vision