small gestures, grand gestures

2023

Shot inside the French Ministry of Defence audiovisual archive near Paris, the film looks at the visual traces remaining of the transfer of colonial statues and monuments from Algiers to Marseille, in the weeks following Algerian independence. Installed throughout Algerian territory during occupation, these objects were transferred on military boats and re-installed in France where they remain in public space to this day. Through outdated buildings and along intertwining cables, Camille Kaiser’s camera focuses on the micro-gestures that enable access to state archival documents. In deserted offices where computers seem to come alive, the process of consulting the archive becomes vertiginous. 

Credits

Image: Sebastian Vargas

Score: SD S

Editing: Camile Kaiser

Colour grading: Paul Shiakallis

With the support of

Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain, DCS, Genève

Kiefer Hablitzel Stiftung

Ernst Göhner Stiftung

Gwärtler Stiftung

Aargauer Kunsthaus

Subsidized by La Ville de Genève

Filmed at ECPAD, Ivry-sur-Seine, July 2022

With the precious help of: Véronique Pontillon, Marie Pham Van, Chérif Slimani

The archival photographs in the film are from the series ALG 62-135 by Gérard Py, SCA/ECPAD/Défense.

Many thanks to Marie Mayoly, Jamal Nxedlana, Olivia Alexandra Fahmy, Julie Marmet