REINA & ABDELBAKI
Conversation between Paris and Oran
“Reina & Abdelbaki” creates a space of dialogue between two countries, Algeria and France, through the voices of Reina, and Abdelbaki. Reina, my mother, was born and raised to Spanish parents in Oran, Algeria and settled in France after the Algerian Independence War. Abdelbaki was born in Algeria after the war and settled in Reina’s childhood district in Oran.
They met virtually 15 years ago through a website about Oran and have continued their communications ever since, weaving at a distance an individual and collective transnational history and memory, addressing in their own small but meaningful and personal way the lack of conversations around a painful part of history and French colonialism.
Through archives, correspondences, and photography between Argentina, France, and Algeria, I will produce a transmedia visual story inspired by R&A reflections and shared perspectives on their stories, history, and present, exploring themes like migration, identity, belonging, (des)colonialism, and war.
(Work in progress)
