Zineb Sedira’s Perfect Day

Franco-Algerian feminist photographer and video artist Zineb Sedira works across fiction, documentary and more poetic approaches to explore the human relationship to geography. Spanning installation, photography, film, video and object-making, Sedira’s work aims to preserve and transmit past memories to forge a legacy for the future. We asked Sedira about her fantasy ‘Perfect Day’, where she visits Paris flea markets, shops for vinyls in south London and travels back to Algiers in 1969 to see Miriam Makeba and Nina Simone in concert.

Morning

My favourite mornings are spent wandering with a friend (they can change each time) at the Flea market ‘Les Puces de Vanves’ in Paris in search of books, vinyl records and any other rare and unusual objects connected to my current art research. Once at the flea market, I love stopping at a friend’s vintage book stall to discuss their publication discoveries. I might buy a few books…

After a few hours of exploration, findings and encounters, I love to finish the morning with a good lunch at the local brasserie with une salade de chèvre!

Afternoon

One of my treasured afternoons is walking through Brixton on a spring or autumn day. I love shopping in the food market under the arcades and discussing the various exotic fruits and vegetables I don’t know how to cook with the traders.

Then I’ll stop at the vinyl shop in the Granville Arcade hoping to come across a rare record. I’ll continue walking toward Brockwell Park for a long energetic stroll. The afternoon will end at the Café on the Hill in the middle of the park.

Evening

One of my dreams is to go back and attend Miriam Makeba and Nina Simone’s concert at the Pan African Festival of Algiers in the summer of 1969! I would dance and dance…Then I would ask to finish the night with both of them discussing music, resistance and militantism. And of course, this would have to happen in the beautiful garden of the Hotel El Djazair in Algiers.