Kenza Bousseloub: Echoes / أصداء
Curated by Sarah Trad
Opening Reception: Friday, May 5, 2023 | 6-9pm | Free-To-Attend
Friday, May 5, 2023 – Sunday, June 11, 2023
Presented in BlackBox at Vox Populi
About the Exhibition
Batikh Batikh is proud to present its second exhibition at Vox Populi’s Black Box Theater. Echoes / أصداء is the first solo exhibition of work by Algerian-American artist, Kenza Bousseloub. Featuring photography and moving image material gathered over multiple trips to visit her extended family in Mila, Setif, and Algiers, Algeria, this show is also the World Premiere of Bousseloub’s documentary film, Nissa’a Djazaïriat, Voices of East Algeria.
Echoes explores themes around time, the history of Algerian women and the emotional labor and care within North African women’s communities. Bousseloub’s photography is experienced as snippets of important events, from family dinners to weddings, in a welcoming but disorienting fashion, outside of time and place.
The exhibition title refers to the consistent acts of strength and resistance by Algerian women, from taking part in the Algerian War of Independence against France, to the teachings and care they perform in influencing future generations. The exhibition shows varying age groups of women within an Algerian community, centering their voices when they have been overshadowed in historical narratives.
Echoes is the beginning of an archive project by Bousseloub to preserve these materials and ensure that the lessons taught by Algerian women reverberate into the future.
Echoes is curated by Batikh Batikh (BB) Founder, Sarah Trad. BB is a pop-up cinema and gallery that centers South-West Asian North African (SWANA) women and queer artists. BB focuses on bringing SWANA films to Philadelphia and helping local queer and women artists acquire resources for solo exhibitions at rented spaces. Based on an anti-capitalist art model, BB’s exhibition series serves as an incubator program, providing artists with mentorship, honorarium and marketing for their first solo exhibitions.
About Batikh Batikh
Echoes is the second exhibition presented by Batikh Batikh. Batikh Batikh is a pop-up cinema and gallery that centers South-West Asian North African (SWANA) women and LGBTQI+ artists. Founded by filmaker and curator, Sarah Trad, BB focuses on bringing SWANA films to Philadelphia and helping local queer and women artists acquire resources for solo exhibitions at rented spaces. Based on an anti-capitalist art model, where all art is free to the public with featured artists paid, these screenings and exhibitions will provide programming that showcases SWANA and queer joy outside the Western gaze.
www.batikhcollective.com | @batikhcollective
About the Artists
Kenza Bousseloub كنزة بوسلوب is an Algerian- American artist who works in film, journalism, and visual storytelling. Although her artistry is generally based in the city of Philadelphia, she has created internationally subjective documentary projects and continues to do so locally as she grounds her work in personal stories where she aims to explore larger themes of cultural convergence, identity, and representation. Additionally, her research is centered on Algerian genealogies, visibility, and colonization in archives and oral history. Her focus on the relationship between the evolution of Algerian womanhood and society as a whole, has been an ongoing theme of interest which she continues to explore.
www.bousseloub.com | @kenoozaaa
Sarah Trad سارة طراد is a Lebanese-American filmmaker and curator based in Philadelphia. She focuses on themes such as Arab American history, Arab representation, queerness, mental health, memory, and future alternate realities. She is currently the Director of Programming for the MENA Film Festival in Vancouver and Founder/Director of the Philly-based, artist-run, pop-up cinema and gallery, Batikh Batikh/ بطيخ بطيخ. Sarah’s work has been screened at the Gimli Film Festival, Toronto Arab Film Festival, Antimatter Media Art Festival, Rendezvous With Madness Festival, Everson Museum of Art, and Currents New Media.
ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
Please note that Vox Populi is located on the third floor of a historic warehouse building at 319 N. 11th Street and that there are five steps leading from the street-level to the first-floor landing where the passenger elevator picks-up/drops-off. The entry into/out of the elevator is 29-inches wide, so may not accommodate all wheelchairs or motorized chairs. Any individual requiring a ramp to navigate this entryway is encouraged to get in touch with Vox Populi ahead of time to coordinate ramp-access and discuss accessibility details. Our ramps may not be suitable for all wheelchairs or motorized chairs, so we strongly encourage anyone requiring a ramp to be in touch at: events@voxpopuligallery.org or 215.238.1236