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  • Mother Tongue

Zineb Sedira

Mother Tongue

2002

© Zineb Sedira

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On loan

Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge, UK): Real Families

Artist
Zineb Sedira born 1963
Medium
Video, 3 monitors, colour and sound (stereo)
Dimensions
Duration: 5min
overall display dimensions variable
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Purchased 2007
Reference
T12315

Display caption

In Mother Tongue the artist, her mother and her daughter try to exchange childhood memories in their native languages: French, Arabic and English. Sedira was born in Paris to Algerian parents, and moved to London to study art, where her daughter was born. The work reflects on storytelling as a way to preserve cultural identity across generations. It underscores the difficulty of maintaining a shared heritage across national and linguistic divides and acknowledges the complexity of identity.

Gallery label, May 2019

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Film and audio

  • TateShots

    Zineb Sedira: ‘The personal is political’

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      • talking(602)
    • adults(20,120)
      • woman(9,110)
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    • ethnicity(4,873)
      • Arabic(21)
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      • daughter(718)
      • grandmother(101)
      • mother(1,382)
    • lifestyle and culture(10,247)
      • cultural identity(7,943)
    • nationality(18,601)
      • Algerian(7)
    • social comment(6,584)
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