Repérages
mp3 loop stereo track, 60mn.
Collected audio files (edited)
2023
This hour-long sound work in two channels is composed from various recordings made of boats moored in the bay of Algiers blasting their horns to commemorate the November anniversary of the Algerian revolution or the deaths of key political figures. The recordings were all made by the artist’s friends while he was absent from a city he had moved to a decade ago. The audio clips spoke to Merouche as evidence of the minimal tools with which, in his words, “a governing body marks the significance of official narratives and negotiates their durability within the Algerian geography and upon its inhabitants.” They made Merouche curious about what motivates the Algérois desire to respond to the state’s sonic performance by capturing it on their phones.
Repérages aims to create an auditory field inside which visitors navigate between the echos of a triumphant nationalism emanating from the Bay and the everyday noise of street life in Algiers. The Bay (rather than simply the Mediterranean) holds great historical significance for Algiers, a site that Merouche describes as “a sensitive place in the city, a place that is both hyper visible and physically inaccessible.” In an Algérois imagination, contact between the City and the Bay is made at the bottom of the Casbah, where states of emergency have been declared dating back to the Corsair era and Ottoman Regency.
Exhibition text from En Attendant Omar Getlato: Epilogue
Curated by Natasha Marie-Llorens
Repérages – Installation shot at Magasin-CNAC, 8Site Bouchayer-Viallet, 8 esplanade Andry-Farcy, Grenoble, FR.
Part of collective exhibition “En Attendant Omar Gatlato“, 6 April – 10 October 2023.
Repérages – Install at rhizome gallery, 82 rue Didouche Mourad, Algiers, DZ.
Part of solo show “Friendly Islands“, 4th to 31st March 2023.