Tate Britain Commission: Zineb Sedira: When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks... 13 May 2026 - 17 January 2027

Tate Britain today unveils When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks…, a major new commission by Zineb Sedira. Sedira has transformed Tate Britain’s neo-classical Duveen Galleries into an immersive installation drawing on the rich legacy of 1960s and 70s African cinema. The commission centres on Algeria following its independence in 1962, when it became one of the hubs for activist filmmakers from Africa, Asia, South and Central America to share political ideas and envision alternative futures. Exploring the role of cinema in shaping collective memory and global solidarity, Sedira’s commission reanimates historical film techniques and narratives in a celebration of cultural resilience.

Visitors are greeted by the commission’s title in bright red lettering in the style of Hollywood cinema signs of the 1940s and 50s. Sedira infuses the visual language of Hollywood’s Golden age with the radical energy of ‘Third Cinema’, a term coined in the 1960s for the anti-imperialist movement which rejected elements of both Hollywood and European art cinema. Sedira has recreated a cinema to show her newly commissioned film, staged in four acts to mirror the key stages of filmmaking: scriptwriting, shooting, editing and screening. It features the voice of Boudjema Kareche, the director of the Cinémathèque Algérienne from 1973 to 2004, an institution showcasing revolutionary films from Africa and the Global South. Kareche’s memories of the period are woven together with archival imagery and scenes of Sedira both behind and in front of the camera, celebrating the activist spirit embedded in cinematic history.

At the centre of the gallery, Sedira has installed a 1960s Parisian café complete with a bar, tables, chairs, and books. Visitors are invited to sit, read and immerse themselves in this atmospheric set, which pays homage to the cafés that served as vital spaces for political conversation and solidarity for Algerians living in exile during the War of Independence. To one side of the café stands a customised Scopitone, a video jukebox once popular with migrant workers. The Scopitone has been re‑engineered by Sedira to play excerpts from Agnès Varda’s Salut les Cubains 1963, where animated still images pulse to Afro‑Cuban rhythms, capturing dance, civil society and cultural expression as forms of collective resistance.

In the North Duveen, a cinema sign in Arabic stands over a sculptural display of vintage camera equipment, highlighting the material presence of film. An interview with film critic and historian Ahmed Bedjaoui, recounting how Algeria became a global centre for militant cinema following independence from France, is projected from a 1960s French van reimagined as a ‘Ciné Pop’. The history of these mobile projection units, used by the French army to distribute propaganda and later reappropriated by the Algerian state to bring revolutionary and anti‑colonial cinema to rural communities, is central to Sedira’s commission. Bedjaoui reflects on his decades-long career and the power of cinema to preserve cultural memory.

Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain, said: “We are delighted to present Zineb Sedira’s illuminating commission here at Tate Britain. Sedira takes visitors on a journey through a radical turning point in the history of the Global South. She reveals the crucial role of cinema as a tool of resistance, memory, and political imagination, and demonstrates her capacity to revive forgotten histories. I look forward to seeing how our visitors will engage with this powerful work.”