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Curatorial note

For Edition IX – Bodies and Technologies the researcher Samia Henni was invited by programme curator Megan Hoetger to develop a new project related to her ongoing research into the French nuclear detonation programmes in the Algerian Sahara. What has emerged is Performing Colonial Toxicity, an expansive research project unfolding across a multimedia immersive installation (7 October 2023 – 14 January 2024; co-produced with Framer Framed, Amsterdam), an experimental repository publication (forthcoming November 2023; co-published with Framer Framed and Edition Fink, Zurich), and – what visitors find here in ificantdance.studio – an online Testimony Translation Project, which begins the long process of digitalizing and translating over seven hundred pages of written and oral testimonies from French and Algerian victims of the nuclear blasts. From each of these platforms Henni experiments with performative modes of exposing and spatializing the inaccessible classified archives of this violent history.

Read more ›››

Testimonies

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Testimony of Algerian victims, collected by Solange Fernex ›››

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Testimony of Algerian victims, collected by Solange Fernex ›››

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Testimony of Algerian victims, collected by Solange Fernex ›››

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Testimony of Aicha, collected by Bruno Hadjih ›››

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Testimony of Amoud ag Boudjamaa, collected by Bruno Hadjih ›››

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Testimony from CIMETIÈRE SQT, collected by Bruno Hadjih ›››

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Testimony of Khanoufa Tradyut, collected by Bruno Hadjih ›››

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Testimony of Saliat Ali, collected by Bruno Hadjih ›››

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Testimony of Hammouch Abdel Kader ben Ali, collected by Bruno Hadjih ›››

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Testimony of Mahamed ag Rali, collected by Bruno Hadjih ›››

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Testimony of Oum-el Kher, collected by Bruno Hadjih ›››

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Testimony of Joël L, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Gérard D, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Vincent G, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Colonel C, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Germaine T, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Christian L, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Jacque L, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Gérard C, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Warnier G, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Bardou S, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Pierre L, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Georges L, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Jean-Paul D, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Guy S, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Marcel M, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Robert D, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Romeo C, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of H. d.V, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Maryse M, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Viviane G, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Lucien P, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Hervé B, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Daniel M, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Jean-Luc D, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Alain C, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Pierre C, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Domenique M, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Patrice C, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››

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Testimony of Robert B, collected by Observatoire des armements ›››


Acknowledgements

Special thanks go to the twenty translator-participants who have committed their time to translating Henni’s selection of testimonies, including: Raoul Audouin, Adel Ben Bella, Omar Berrada, Megan Brown, Séverine Chapelle, Simona Dvorák, Hanieh Fatouree, Alessandro Felicioli, Anik Fournier, Jill Jarvis, Augustin Jomier, Timothy Scott Johnson, Anna Kimmel, Corentin Lécine, Natasha Llorens, Miriam Matthiesen, Martine Neddam, M’hamed Oualdi, Roxanne Panchasi and Alice Rougeaux. Learn more about each of the translator-participants here ›››

Samia Henni would also like to extend her most sincere gratitude to Marley Barnes, Bruno Barrillot, Larbi Benchiha, Frederique Bergholtz, Cas Bool, Patrice Bouveret and the collaborators and partners of the Observatoire des armements, François Girard-Meunier, Bruno Hadjih, Megan Hoetger, Elisabeth Leuvrey, Ashley Maum, Jean Medina, Josien Pieterse, Georg Rutishauser, Pascal Schwaighofer, and all those who contributed to this project and who asked to remain anonymous.

Funding support for the Tamazight-to-French translation of Algerian testimonies has generously been provided by Dr. Roxanne Panchasi, Associate Professor, Department of History, Simon Fraser University.

Reading Table · Samia Henni on Colonial Toxicity

Samia Henni, ‘Jerboasite: Naming French Radioactive Matter in the Sahara.’ e-flux Architecture: Half-Life, edited by Nick Axel, Nikolaus Hirsch, Himali Singh Soin, Irene Sunwoo (December 2022) ›››

Samia Henni, ‘Terra Nucleus: Radiating Desert Lives.’ The Funambulist: The Desert, no. 44 (November-December 2022): 60-67 ›››

Samia Henni, ‘Nuclear powers: France’s atomic bomb tests in the Algerian Sahara,’ The Architecture Review. June 22, 2022 ›››

Samia Henni, ed. Deserts Are Not Empty, Columbia Books on Architecture and the City (New York: Columbia University Press, 2022) ›››

Samia Henni, ‘Oil, Gas, Dust: From the Sahara to Europe’ e-flux Architecture: Coloniality of Infrastructure, edited by Nick Axel, Kenny Cupers, Nikolaus Hirsch (October 2021) ›››

Samia Henni, Exhibition as a Form of Writing. On ‘Discreet Violence: Architecture of the French War in Algeria.’ PARSE, 13.1 (Spring 2021): np ›››

Samia Henni, ed. War Zones, gta papers 2 (Zürich: gta verlag, 2018) ›››

Interview with Samia Henni on Architecture of Counterrevolution: The French Army in Northern Algeria. jadaliyya.com, April 13, 2018 ›››

Samia Henni, ‘Toxic Imprints of Bleu, Blanc, Rouge: France's Nuclear Bombs in the Algerian Sahara.’ The Funambulist: Toxic Atmospheres, no. 14 (November-December 2017): 28-33 ›››


Reading Table · Nuclear Toxification Reports

Publications by L’Observatoire des armements ›››

Bruno Barrillot. Essais nucléaires français: L’héritage empoisonné (Lyons: Observatoire des armements, 2012). View preview online. ›››

Bruno Barrillot, ‘French Nuclear Tests in the Sahara: Open the Files.’ Science for Democratic Action 15, no. 3 (April 2008): 1, 8-14 ›››

International Atomic Energy Agency, ‘Radiological Conditions at the Former French Nuclear Test Sites in Algeria: Preliminary Assessment and Recommendations,’ 2005 ›››

Testimonies by AVEN (Association des Vétérans des Essais Nucléaires au Sahara, en Polynésie et leurs familles) ›››

Rapport sur les incidences environnementales et sanitaires des essais nucleaires effectues par la France entre 1960 et 1996 et elements de comparaison avec les essais des autres puissances nucleaires, par M. Christian Bataille, Député, et M. Henri Revol, Sénateur, February 2001 ›››

Rapport du comité de liaison pour la coordination du suivi sanitaire des essais nucléaires Français, May 2007 ›››

Rapport fait au nom de la commission de la défense nationale et des forces armées sur la proposition de loi (n° 3966), visant à la prise en charge et à la réparation des conséquences des essais nucléaires français, par M. Moetai Brotherson, Député ›››

Collin, Jean-Marie & Bouveret, Patrice. The Waste From French Nuclear Tests in Algeria: Radioactivity Under the Sand. ICAN France. 2020. ›››