Zineb Sedira exhibit opens at Scottsdale Museum of Art

The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art debuts its first exhibit by an artist of Algerian descent. The exhibit is called “Voice-Over: Zineb Sedira”. The guest curator of the exhibit is Dr. Natasha Boas.

The artist, “was born and raised in the sort of the racial “other” suburbs of Paris, which we hear about a lot. The immigrant suburb. And both of her parents were Algerian born, and had sort of experienced the Algerian War, which is also the war against French colonialism. She then went on to go to London for art school and she went to several of the most prestigious art schools in London and she’s currently working and practicing in her studio in Brixton, and Brixton is a really vibrant neighborhood in London with many different cultures coming together, kind of reflecting for her background, multiple cultures,” Boas said.

When describing this exhibition, Boas said it, “reflects not only that sort of exciting moment at the Pan African festival in Algiers in 1969 but also reflects her background, her cultural background, the fact that she belonged sort of as a global transnational citizen.”

What is in this exhibit?

It is a diorama of the artist’s life and “it’s the reproduction of the artist’s living room, her Brixton living room, where she lives with her daughter in London. And so, part of the setup is actually wallpaper, photographic wallpaper, of crypto cases, but other aspects of it are actually real objects that she’s collected.”

Boas continues to say, “she’s inviting all of us to be a part of her living room, be a part of her life. She’s become a very famous artist so this is a bold move on her part to let us enter her private life.”

And Boas has dreams for this exhibit when people visit,”I would hope that people would come away with a sense of belonging to a sort of communal humanity that we all share similar experiences.”