Lydia Ourahmane: Survival in the afterlife

De Appel is honored to present the first solo exhibition of Lydia Ourahmane in the Netherlands. This exhibition, realized as part of the Consortium Commissions, initiated by Mophradat, became an opportunity to organize an archive comprising photographic materials, moving images and oral documentation—all produced alongside the constitution of an active spiritual movement and community her family founded during the civil war in Algeria (1991–2002). “These materials, which have remained within my immediate family, are testament to a spiritual movement which occurred behind closed doors, and for a period of time, in secret, in the basement of our various dwellings which were then repurposed for a growing community of people.” writes Ourahmane in the midst of production. “Many of [these people] faced persecution back home and within the larger context of society. This is the reason it became a commune, not by recruiting per se, but rather determined by the urgency of survival, in the context of a civil war.” With this endeavour to gather, digitise and catalogue copious photographic materials produced by her parents and other members of a Christian commune, which came to be named the House of Hope, the artist makes these sensitive materials publicly accessible for the first time. How might this archive become a case study for investigating the changing conditions of belief at the intersection of religion, geography, politics and faith?

There are specific conditions for viewing the House of Hope archive: gloves supplied to handle the archive will afterwards become part of its holdings, “underscoring the role of the witness.” Before reaching the archive, visitors will be immersed in a sonic environment, an electronic sound composition realised in collaboration with Yawning Portal. Notice the direction of fires, creates a world, a womb for nascent ways of living. Described alternately as “music to levitate to” and “euphoric ambient structures,” Yawning Portal is the collective name for two musical collaborators based between Chicago and London. In their work with Ourahmane, they conjure a landscape (using synthesized tones, foley effects and a recorded and repeated incantation), which will be transmitted inside de Appel’s Aula through an optimized speaker system. Here the artist has made mattresses available to facilitate listening to the album-length composition. The title, Notice the direction of fires, alludes to the keen attention required to navigate an unknown landscape, where smoke appears as an indicator for the path of an invisible fire. 

There is one element in the exhibition which is meant to disappear. Over the summer of 2021, Ourahmane has made a series of related sculptural elements—ciphers of conversations, measures of time spent—with collaborators, friends and family. What appears as hand-sewn pillows are also the foundations of a material language. These silent, sealed forms carrying the common title Closures are made to be taken away in time. 

Events:
(please note safety measures during the Covid-19 pandemic are evolving in the Netherlands; please check our website for the up to date instructions)

September 21, 2021, 7pm
Opening with “purgatory beans” cooked by the artist and friends 

November 6, 2021, 7pm–2am
Museum Night: workshop inspired by Closures
Contact David Smeulders, Curator of Education, to learn more and participate david@deappel.nl

November 23, 2021, 5–6pm 
Lydia Ourahmane artist talk at De Ateliers 
Stadhouderskade 86, 1073 AT Amsterdam
The Netherlands

More about the artist:
Born in 1992 in Saïda, Algeria, Lydia Ourahmane lives and works between Europe and North Africa. She graduated from Goldsmiths University of London in 2014 with The Third Choir, an installation which involved the first instance of the exportation of an artwork from Algeria since the country gained independence from French colonial rule in 1962. Thereafter she continued to test the possibilities for charging and converting the elements of the physical world as these move between borders, generations and dimensions. With works such as In the Absence of Our Mothers, presented at Chisenhale Gallery in 2018 and Barzakh, 2021 presented at the Kunsthalle Basel and Triangle-Astéridesin Marseilles, Ourahmane’s evolving research and practice continue to raise key questions about the connections between spirituality, contemporary geopolitics, migration and the complex histories of colonialism.

Survival in the afterlife is part of The Consortium Commissions 2020-2021, initiated by Mophradat, and presented by de Appel in partnership with Portikus in Frankfurt. With special thanks for in-kind support to De Ateliers.

De Appel is supported with structural funds from Mondriaan Fonds and Gemeente Amsterdam