Living a New Life: Three ‘Pieds-Noirs’ Testimonies

In this video from 2011, three residents of Fresnes (a town in the southern outskirts of Paris) recount their experiences of having lived in and then left Algeria. Their testimonies were recorded by the Ecomusée du Val de Bièvre, a museum in Fresnes, as part of the exhibition Pieds-Noirs ici, la tête ailleurs' (14 March 2012 – 20 January 2013) which marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the War of Algeria. It examined the history of the Pieds-Noirs from settlement, to war, and repatriation, stemming from the fact that many Pieds-Noirs found themselves rehoused in newly built apartment buildings in Fresnes. You can also discover several other Pieds-noirs testimonieshere.

This project’s own exhibition in the Pathfoot Gallery at the University of Stirling has been developed in collaboration with the Ecomusée du Val de Bièvre and the 2011 exhibition.