The ancient city of Algiers, the Casbah, is now in a very dilapidated state, despite having been declared a World Heritage Site.

This Mediterranean port was nicknamed “White Algiers” because of the colour its buildings were once painted in. We thought it was poetic to give it back its whiteness, while respecting part of the original white, writing messages that would make its walls and its people shine again today.

THE WHITE

The term Casbah comes from the Arabic word Al Qasbah, meaning citadel. Of Ottoman origin, it is a small city built on a hill, jutting out into the sea and divided into two: the Upper City and the Lower City.

Seen from the Bay of Algiers, its houses were said to look like sugar cubes climbing the hill. This earned it the nickname “La Blanche” (the white one). But despite the romanticism surrounding the old town, neglect and the passage of time have removed the white from its facades.

Historically, the Casbah has been the most intense focus of Islamism in the city, becoming one of the most turbulent places during the Black Decade that engulfed the country during the 90s. UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1992, but the truth is that this chaotic agglomeration of houses is falling apart.

WRITING IN ARABIC

We had to be respectful, so we decided to intervene in a subtle way. To give the city back its white color. To enclose time, in a poetic way, between those two layers of white, the old and the new. Phrases and words, universal messages that sum up the days we lived there and the impression we took away from Muslim society.

The intervention respects the part of the original support that forms the inside of the letters. The entire exterior is painted white. There are fragments that are easier to read, others that are barely discernible, thus creating a magical effect. In a way, those words were always there.