Against the backdrop of the Cold War’s bi-polar tensions during the 1960s and 1970s, militants from all the continents convened in Algiers and witnessed a forging of a ‘third way’, other possible futures. The Algerian capital hosted everyone from national liberation movements, political exiles, rebels and disillusioned Westerners. Drawing on the liberation movements’ broadcasts aired by the Algerian National Broadcasting Company (RTA), Yasmina Reggad develops polyglot and polyphonic sonic productions that echo her journey through the worlds of ideas and ideals of a time when Algiers was dubbed the ‘Mecca of Revolution’. Initiated in 2016, the long-term research we dreamt of utopia and we woke up screaming spans across several continents and several languages. A diverse corpus of both audio-visual and documentary archive elements and contemporary documents intertwines with testimonies by key actors and militant voices of the 1960s and 1970s and the present.

With ‘Listening Session #2’, Yasmina Reggad extends an invitation to historian, researcher and performer Saphia Arezki (Marseille, France) to dive together into her sound archive and produce a new broadcast both for the ears and the eyes. ‘Listening Session #2’ is amplified through a collaboration with Chimurenga (Cape Town, South Africa) and is transmitted live on their internet-based radio Pan African Space Station (PASS) which hosts a wealth of alternative archive and archival material that interrogate our shared history.

80 minutes
in English
+ Archival audio & video material in English, Arabic, Algerian Darija, Spanish, French, Portuguese & German

Yasmina Reggad is a performance artist, researcher, writer and dramaturge based in Brussels. Currently she is curator of the French Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, co-founder and artistic director of the Bienal das Amazônias and curator at aria, an artist residency in Algiers. She holds an MA in Medieval History from the Sorbonne University. Yasmina Reggad’s performative work has recently been staged at La Cantine Syrienne de Montreuil, Les Rencontres à l’échelle / Mucem and Jeu de Paume (France); KANAL-Centre Pompidou and Kaaitheater, Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture (Spain) and Biennale Warszawa (Poland).

Saphia Arezki is a historian, researcher, and sometimes a performer who is based in Marseille. She holds a PhD from the Sorbonne University (Paris). Specialising in post-independence Algeria, she authored the book De l'ALN à l'ANP : la construction de l'armée algérienne (1954-1991) published by Barzakh Editions (Algeria, 2018) and Sorbonne Editions (France, 2022). Saphia Arezki currently works as a documentary researcher for films and theatre productions and is collaborating with directors Adeline Rosenstein (Laboratoire Poison) and Tatjana Pessoa (La bibliothèque de ma grand-mère).

Chimurenga is a project-based mutable object, workspace, and pan-African platform for editorial activities. Founded by Ntone Edjabe in Cape Town in 2002, it makes space for ideas and reflection by Africans about Africa. The aim of their activities is not just to produce new knowledge, but to express the intensities of our world, to capture those forces, and to take action.
https://chimurengachronic.co.za/
https://panafricanspacestation.org.za