Islands of Hope by Kenza Merzoug

Public Project

Islands of Hope

Copyright Kenza Merzoug 2024

Date of Work Dec 2019 - Dec 2022

Updated Sep 2022

Location Algiers, Algeria

Topics Activism, Adolescence, Black and White, Civil Rights, Editorial, Freedom, International Stories, Photography, Revolution, Social Justice, Youth

Islands of Hope is the result of a year and a half's work in Algeria (El Djazaïr in Arabic means the islands), when the population took over the country's nerve centers every Friday to demand the departure of a president who lead the country during two decades and then to sing and shout out broader demands: a second republic, an end to corruption... Millions of citizens broke down the wall of fear erected by the black decade and the ban on demonstrations in the country. The Harragas, "those who burn their papers" to flee their country by any means possible in the absence of prospects in their country, canceled their departure. Hope revived.

Then the pandemic began signing the end of a series of weekly demonstrations for a year and a half. Streets once crowded, balconies adorned with flags retuned to normal. All this seems to have been an illusion, a fallen dream.

However, thanks to the demonstrations, the meetings and debates on the steps of the National Popular Theater, the conversations on social networks, projects were born, a book, a media, an exhibition. Islands of hope.

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