It is difficult to have a clear view of the sea from the interior of Algiers, even if the capital is built on terraces which run down the steep slopes which encircle its immense bay. In Hichem Merouche’s first solo exhibition, “Friendly Islands”, the artist grapples with the isolation of the city, a paradox, given that its inhabitants are often caught in a perpetual state of departure.
A trio of thunderous, melancholic notes fill the early 20th-century interior of the Rhizome Gallery, echoing off the long French windows and brightly colored cement tile floor. Locations (all works cited 2022), is an hour-long sound work composed of various recordings made of boats moored in the bay blasting their horns to commemorate the November anniversary of the Algerian revolution or the death of political figures. Under cover of a nationalist celebration, the vibration of their appeals makes tangible the possibility of an elsewhere.
For Where do gulls go when they die, 2022, a line of delicate seagull bones runs along three gallery walls. Merouche collected these remains during his daily trips to the Frioul Islands, an archipelago off Marseille, just across the Mediterranean from the Algerian capital. The exhibition draws a parallel between these desolate islands – once used to quarantine sailors before they set foot on European soil – and the scattered private spaces in which people spend their lives in Algiers. The bones trace a faint but visceral horizon line: a reminder that with every departure comes a loss.
