Based in Algiers and Barcelona, artist Lydia Ourahmane will be discussing recent work, including her 2022 exhibition Tassili, which is the fourth commission in Mercer Union’s Artist First program. At the centre of the exhibition is a moving image work filmed in Tassili n’Ajjer, a Sahara plateau in southeastern Algeria.

Once a fertile “plateau of rivers,” as the translation of its name implies, the region is now an arid expanse of desert that is inhospitable to the many forms of life previously known to thrive there. Ourahmane, together with a group of collaborators and local guides, journeyed on foot for thirteen days to a part of Tassili n’Ajjer near the border of Algeria and Libya. Both the group’s footage and movement are at the centre of Ourahmane’s exhibition at Mercer Union, which marks the first presentation of her work in Canada.

Learn more about the exhibition here.
Learn more about the event here.

Banner images: Views from Lydia Ourahmane: Tassili, SculptureCenter, New York, 2022. Photos by Charles Benton.