All the way up to the Heavens and down to the depths of Hell

The works of Lydia Ourahmane evince the capacity of individuals to overcome the historical narratives in which they are embedded. Many of them look to the history and the present of the artist’s country of Algeria and daily life after the Civil War of 1997¬–8. Growing up there, the artist experienced the realities of military fundamentalism and the entanglements of corruption and terrorism, as well as the legacies of ‘independence’ within postcolonialist life.

Ourahmane’s work for the Istanbul Biennial is titled All the way up to the Heavens and down to the depths of Hell (2017), from a Latin phrase (Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos) describing property rights to the realms above and below the physical site of ownership. The work is a 4 x 4 metre plot of land, which was purchased at a very low price in Arzew, Algeria, a small port city that has experienced significant pollution and toxic emissions due to its heavy industry along the coast. Together with non-regulation of real estate, corrupt practices and an expanded black market, this makes it possible to purchase very small plots of contaminated land at low prices.

At Istanbul Modern, Ourahmane has constructed a rudimentary 4 x 4 metre concrete platform surrounded by four columns with spiked iron rods, replicating the size of the piece of land, the minimum area necessary to secure it from re-sale or squatting. A trumpeter occasionally visits the platform, playing a sombre, ceremonial-sounding tune written by the artist that recalls the military reveille or a ritual rite such as the killing of an animal.

Ourahmane’s contribution explores the affective and environmental legacies of land ownership and its relationship to colonisation and decolonisation, as well as the totems of protectionism. By looking at land use and transfer, her work shows how our experiences of the environment and one another shift through the direct influences of capitalism, colonialism, trade and contamination, both psychological and real.