About This Book
This book is a catalogue for an exhibition in Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art at James Madison University. The exhibition traces the story of French colonialism and colonial violence through the contemporary artwork of Algerian artist Amina Menia (b1976) (http://aminamenia.com/) as contextualized by historical materials. Menia’s photography, film and installation works look at how the Algerian monuments from World War I and the era of French colonization (1830-1962) have been re-appropriated, demolished or left to disintegrate. She will produce a new installation for James Madison University addressing this legacy. Menia’s work rest alongside those of artists working a century earlier to document the war. Widely distributed photography albums, illustrated magazines, and military films shaped the image of the war and the colonial soldier. But privately produced medical images by the Lumière brothers, who invented film and the autochrome (the first color photographic method), and by little-known medical illustrators, represent themes of injury and repair. Together these artists address the tensions between imagined social wholeness and the reality of fractured bodies and destroyed cities. Their work raises questions about whether and how these wounds -- mental, physical and historical -- can be repaired. The lenders to the exhibition include Ms. Menia, the National Museum of Health & Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Établissement de Communication et de Production Audiovisuelle de Défense (ECPAD), which is the French military’s archives of film and photography.
