The Politics of Indigeneity in Algerian Art

This book project explores the history of modern Algerian art through the work of artist Denis Martinez, focusing on his 1990 exhibition 7 murs revisités [“Seven Walls Revisited”]. Held in a rural Amazigh cultural center on the eve of the Algerian Civil War (1992–2002), Martinez developed close ties with Amazigh (Berber) communities, who had long protested for cultural recognition within a post-colonial state that privileged an Arab-Islamic identity. The book argues that in decolonizing nations,