Memorial to the Liberation of Algeria

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The Memorial (left) with the Government Palace in the background

The Memorial to the Liberation of Algeria is a brutalist monument on Boulevard Mohamed-Khemisti in Algiers. It was designed in 1978 by Algerian visual artist M'hamed Issiakhem, as Algiers was preparing to host the 1978 All-Africa Games. The memorial incorporates an earlier sculpted group from the French colonial era, formerly known as the monument aux morts or Le Pavois (referring to a shield used to carry somebody on high), no longer visible but still extant beneath a concrete casing.

History

Le Pavois was designed by architects Maurice Gras et Édouard Monestès [fr] and sculptors Paul Landowski and Charles Bigonet [fr], winners of the public design competition in 1920, and inaugurated on 11 November 1928.[1] It featured a winged Victory evoking Marianne between a French poilu and an Algerian spahi, all three on horseback and together holding a shield (French: pavois) on which rests the body of a fallen World War I combatant.[2] Additional figures included two women and two old men on the monument's back, intended to symbolize the emotional ties between the diverse communities of French Algeria.[3]

Issiakhem's design was a conscious endeavor to preserve the French colonial monument, which also honored the suffering of Algerian fighters, while removing it from public view.[2]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Mémorial de la Libération de l'Algérie (ancien monument aux morts)". Archives Européennes de l'Architecture Algérienne.
  2. ^ a b Beatrice Ivey (28 November 2018). "The Landowski-Issiakhem Pavois". Narratives and Representations of the French Settlers of Algeria: An AHRC Project at the University of Stirling.
  3. ^ "Monument to the Dead of Algiers, or "Le Pavois"". Paul Landowski.

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