Art Moves Africa – Retracing Roots and Tracing New Routes: Mobility and Touring in North Africa

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Country-Specific Information
described as folkloric. Public institutions and
facilities inherited from the colonial period have
in large part deteriorated and few new ones have
been built. Moreover, infrastructures for culture
are strongly centralized in Algiers, with financing
for rural areas dependent largely on personal
connections. Algeria has not yet ratified the 2005
UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion
of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions
(Kessab, 2015).
According to MedCulture’s 2015 report,
cultural and artistic associations received only
0.2% of the annual budget for culture (Kessab,
2015). Associations have been subject to tight
and confusing legislation that limits the freedom
to associate, operate and receive funding (see
Impediments below). According to Freedom
House (2018), “Algeria is one of the most difficult
environments in the world to establish and operate
a business.” There is a very limited culture
of sponsorship and patronage.
Despite the restrictions on its existence,
the independent cultural sector is flourishing and
affirming its presence with verve and energy. The
visual arts have been particularly active, with a
number of independent spaces and initiatives
burgeoning in the last ten years. Censorship,
lack of facilities and financing have muzzled the
performing arts, but artists have stayed active and
are expressing themselves in today’s waves of
popular demonstration. There is a strong awareness
and hope that the future of the country can
be written by Algeria’s creatives.
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MOBILITY TO / FROM ALGERIA
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Algeria’s creative sector has been marked by
isolation, largely a factor of the political unrest in
the 1990s, lack of structuring (described above)
and lack of state support for international exchange.
Algeria is very weakly represented in
AMA’s statistics, with a total of 20 applications
from Algeria and 8 for projects taking place in
the country since 2005.
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QUOTE:
« What’s amazing [about this moment,]
is that the independent cultural scene is
taking up space and gaining in credibility
with the public with small initiatives here
and there. If we can structure our work in
such a way that it’s sustainable, we’ll easily
succeed in taking the lead over the state
institutions. People have expressed their
need for freedom and hope. That gives
us space to act. It’s now possible for us
to channel this energy and to offer
something other than the violence we’ve
always known. »
Myriam Amroun
Cultural project manager, Algiers*
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More generally speaking, international
travel to / from Algeria is a factor of the large size
of the territory, expensive air connections and
a fairly restrictive visa policy. Most international
travel continues to be with Europe, dominated
by France in light of the ties connecting the two
countries: the large Algerian population in France,
continued presence of French institutions in
Algeria, and the relatively low cost of travel.
Faced with these limitations but also
compelled to discover and appropriate their
own country, a number of artists have been purposefully
seeking to develop mobility projects
within Algeria. The size of the country alone
makes travel from North to South a potential
adventure. Moreover, the diversity of cultures
within the country has been a subject of interest,
even opening up curiosity and desire to travel
further afield to Africa. In the words of musician
Sadek Bouzinou (of Democratoz): “Algeria is a
continent.”