Tate

Britain

unveils

a

retro

Parisian

café

–

which

doesn’t

serve

drinks

There’s a lot of heart to Zineb Sedira’s offbeat new Tate Britain Commission, a sweet, sincere love letter to postcolonial North African cinema arranged in three parts across the imposing Duveen Galleries. This, along with its enticing retro style, compensates for the bittiness of a commission that lacks the ambition and cohesion of its more successful predecessors.

Born in Paris in 1963 to Algerian parents, Sedira – who has lived in London since the 1980s – has won acclaim for her warm, stage-set-like installations. At the 2022 Venice Biennale, she scored a hit by transforming the French Pavilion into a film studio.

The centrepiece of this commission, When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks, recreates a 1960s Parisian café frequented by an immigrant community from Algeria (which gained independence from France in 1962). Empty beer glasses and coffee cups appear on little round tables alongside paperbacks about avant-garde cinema. Sadly, the bar isn’t open, but an inviting atmosphere cleverly counteracts the cold formality of the neoclassical surroundings.