I’M TALKING TO WOOD, TO STONE… HISTORY COULD BRING A FIRE!
Film Duration: 11 minutes, 57 seconds
TW: Scenes of violence.
First shown at Royal College of Art MA 2020 Degree Exhibition.
‘Prior to travelling to Algeria to research the Karakou jacket, I sat down to discuss with my father the logistics of getting there and how I would be carrying out my work. Instead we had an argument for 20 minutes.
At the time (February 2019), Algeria was facing demonstrations and protests across the country. Known as ‘The Revolution of Smiles’, or the ‘Hirak Movement’, more than 70,000 people all over Algeria marched, demanding constitutional change. These protests are still taking place, though they have reduced in number since the onset of Covid-19. As members of the Algerian government and army began to step down, the country’s stability once again shook. There was no longer a core government, and the people were adamant President Bouteflika immediately resign, having been in office since 1999. It was not a safe place to be in, yet I was determined I’d go there.
Algeria’s story of colonialism begins 3,200 years ago. It has been conquered by the Phoenicians, the Byzantines, the Romans, the Ottomans, the French. The weight of historical trauma has crippled Algeria, and the entirety of Africa for millenia. It continues to do so. I underestimated how much it could endanger someone like me, navigating a mixed identity, protected by the English bubble I grew up in. I could not understand why my being there would be problematic or a threat, given that I had been to Algeria many times before, and given my Amazigh heritage. It was only until I looked beyond the Karakou and the confines of French fashion houses, did I then feel the blood ooze from my research. In the thick of it, I felt my grandmother’s wounds, my father’s wounds, and my own, align in an intergenerational trauma. The jacket was reduced to an artefact of colonialism, rather than a powerful symbol of Amazigh resistance.
This film is a preface to Kabyle-Girl-Karakou, as well as a messy, incomplete and violent introduction to understanding contemporary history of Algeria. It is named after my father’s exclamation in the film, ‘I’m talking to wood, I’m talking to stone... History could bring fire!’. Our discussions dissolved the ignorant preconceptions I had over travelling to Algeria, believing it would “be simple”. Film cuts from different sources, including my own work, feature the violence and war Algeria has endured for millennia. It is clear now, and always has been, that history cannot be a study of the past when it is so inherently present.’
I’m Talking to Wood, to Stone... History Could Bring Fire! is made up of the following archive footage:
Algeria - Aftermath of massacre on village – AP Archives 21 June 2015
Algeria Celebrates Independence (1962) British Pathe Film Archives Algeria in the 90s – Kal (18 Aug 2019) 90'sالجزائر في الـ "Bronx of Britain” - Moss Side, Manchester (1993)
العلم الامازيغي العظيم amazigh flag (22 May 2013)
British (UK) Army in Afghanistan Real Combat 720p HD Army Frontline (12 June 2013)
France 24: A Look Back at Abdelaziz Bouteflika's Years in Power (2 April 2019)
Houari Boumediene's Domestic Policy in Algeria (1972) Uploaded 1 April 2017 – Npatou
How It's Made - American Dollar - 4 April 2018
Algeria - Victims speak of massacre – AP Archives 21 June 2015
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
War Without Images, Algeria, I Know That You Know by Mohammed Soudani and Michael von Graffenried (1991 – 2000) Libya's Amazigh celebrate spring festival -Al Jazeera 6 April 2012
Market Street Manchester Metrolink 1990s - 2019 Contrasts - citytransportinfo 17 Nov 2019
National Archives - French President Charles De Gaulle and the Six-Year War - National Security Council. Central Intelligence Agency. (09/18/1947 - 12/04/1981). - DVD Copied by IASL Scanner Katie Filbert. - ARC 649319 / LI 263.1923. NTIS-1832 between the National Technical Information Service and Public.Resource.Org
The Algerian Arabs - Create International 16 Nov 2016
The Amazigh of Djerba - Pray 4 Tunisia 21 Feb 2017
The Persecution of Moroccan Berber (1997) - Journeyman Pictures 2 November 2007
Through the Naked Eye (1999) - Diana Moukalled , Directed by Aymen Mroueh Tinariwen (+IO-I)
Tinariwen (+IO:I) - Sastanàqqàm 11 Feb 2017
Yves Saint Laurent 1962-2002 Haute Couture Paris - Fashion Channel 14 Oct 2018
… and the artist’s personal photo and video albums of family & friends.