Zineb Sedira

For a Brief Moment the World Was on Fire... and We Have Come Back, 2019

'For a Brief Moment the World was on Fire' (2021) consists of eight colour photomontages. These works visualise the collective history of a global utopian liberation moment. Sedira suggests that this story is incomplete and can be told by aggregating multiple images from multiple archives. The photomontages are made by combining visuals and texts sourced from countercultural, anti-colonial, and liberation-focused newspapers and pamphlets, as well as newly discovered materials from institutions such as the Cinémathèque d’Alger, the Centre culturel algérien in Paris, and other archival collections. Sedira considers collage-making as “similar to editing film” and fittingly, the works include books, DVDs, vinyl, printed film stills, and photographs, all merging into energetic compositions that encapsulate the energy of a half-century-old revolutionary festival.