L’institut du Monde Arabe, a marvelous building in itself located on the shores of the Seine river, invites us to a travel back in time with Raymond Depardon, a well-known photographer and movie maker, a legend, and Kamel Daoud, a much younger Algerian writer. This travel through time and space brings us back to 1961 in Algiers and Oran, abundantly photographed by a young Depardon, and 2019, photographed by the same, 58 years later. Daoud, born 8 years after the independence of Algeria, wanders with him through time and history and provides his own comments, with his views of 2022. The result is a unique cooperation between two artists confronted with the same topic: a large body of black of white photographs showing everyday life in the disturbed Algeria of 1961 and a more appeased Algeria of 2019, showing yet other signs of possible disturbances. Daoud summarizes this work eloquently: “Raymond Depardon photographs what he sees at the junction of what he does not see. I look at what I don’t see, thinking I know what it means. His eye in my hand. His body is my memory. What interests me in the photographer is his body, his wanderings, his journey: I slip into him, I fit his movements, his gaze, his culture, his prejudices perhaps, but also his singularity. Wandering from click to click”. No better way to say it.
