Harragas

Born in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, France, in 1970 to an Algerian family originally from the mountainous areas around the Algerian city of Constantine, Kader Attia grew up between two countries and cultures. 

Harragas (2009), refers to the word ‘harragas,’ which means ‘those who burn’ and metaphorically indicates the illegal men, migrants, in the Algerian dialect. 

Here, Attia collected small pictures of immigrants from North Africa who tried to cross the Mediterranean sea to enter the European continent illegally. 

The artist interpreted the masterpiece Le Radeau de la Méduse (1818-1819) by the French painter Théodore Géricault by creating a mise en abyme with pixelized images, creating a correlation between the two paintings, both symbolizing the fail and the loss of hope. 

The first example shows people from the former French colonies, whereas the second represents the colonial power – since the frigate was sent to reestablish French presence in West-Africa in 1816. 

Kader Attia wants to confront the audience to the current difficulties of the world, namely the identities, the emergence of religious dogma, and cultural divergences.