El Moudjahidate, Invisible to Visible
Nadja Makhlouf, photographer.
Paul Goodwin
'In these images I see time. The Time of Algerian women. Stretched. Juxtaposed. Folded in on itself to reveal it’s own unfolding. Nadja Mahklouf’s diptych portraits bring the past into the present to reveal hidden stories of heroism, bravery and sacrifice that have been hidden. The folded lines of flesh that make up the sturdy faces of the women on the right side of the diptych, in the present, are markers of time that radiate wisdom, confidence, fulfilment, and defiance. Their eyes say: "I survived, I lived to tell the tale and I will not be silenced!". As the viewer's eyes move to the left panel to focus on the younger version of these women in their diverse guises and actions as combatants, their gaze is confronted with determined faces that look back at you and say: "I’m here, I’m real, I am doing what I need to do and don’t get in my way!" Nadja Mahklouf’s study of the Time of Algerian women combatants - doubled reflections of divided selves in action and contemplation - opens up new ways of understanding complex histories that have been long distorted, supressed or devalued. Her portraits show how photography can undo it’s own history of colonial violence by re-presenting women at the centre of the frame. The juxtaposition of the archival image with the portrait of the figure from the present enables an extended reading of how the past and present enfold into one another to produce multiple and layered readings of the lives of these women. The Time of Algerian women is revealed in new configurations beyond the colonial gaze and beyond the veil.'
Paul Goodwin is an independent curator, urban theorist and researcher based in London. His curatorial, research and writing projects extend across the interdisciplinary fields of contemporary art and urbanism with a particular focus on black and diaspora artists and visual cultures. At the Centre for Urban and Community Research at Goldsmiths, University of London, between 2006 and 2010 he directed Re-visioning Black Urbanism, an interdisciplinary research project exploring the multiple modalities of blackness and urbanism in cities such as London, Lisbon and Paris.
From 2008 to 2012 as a curator at Tate Britain he directed the pioneering Cross Cultural Programme that explored questions of migration and globalisation in contemporary British art through a programme of international conferences, workshops, talks and live
art events. His curatorial projects include a number of internationally significant exhibitions including: Migrations: Journeys Into British Art, Tate Britain 2012; Thin Black Line(s), Tate Britain, 2011; Coming Ashore, 2011, Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon, Portugal; Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic (consultant curator), Tate Liverpool, 2010; Underconstruction, Hospital Julius De Matos, Lisbon, Portugal, 2009. In 2013 he curated Charlie Phillips: The Urban Eye at New Art Exchange, Nottingham which was long-listed for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014. His most recent exhibition, We Will Walk, was at the Turner Contemporary, Margate.