In November 2025, town of Nancy unveiled the *Disorientation Desk*, an anti-monument wondering colonial reminiscence in entrance of the statue of Sergeant Blandan, Position de Padoue. Youtube/screenshot.
In Nancy, Mert-et-Moselle, on November 6, 2025, reverse the statue of Sergeant Blandan, the Desk of Disorientation, the paintings of Dorothea-Miriam Kell, was once came upon, which, consistent with the inscription visual at the base, “questions the colonial past of Algeria and calls for the representation of Algeria and France”. By means of the prerequisites of its advent, by means of the traits of its location, but in addition by means of the particularity of its stylistic grammar, the Desk of Disorientation inaugurates an authentic politics of reminiscence.
This monument is the results of a “bottom-up” heritage procedure, the manufactured from the convergent tasks of various native actors: an academic venture on the Jeanne-d’Arc Top Faculty, initiated by means of Professor Etienne Augris, suffering from the Black Lives Subject motion; the non-public historical past of the Kellou circle of relatives, whose father, director Malek Kellou, came upon the statue all through his adolescence in Boufarik (close to Blida, Algeria) after which, changing into a resident of Nancy (Mert et Moselle), rediscovered it there. This tale is echoed within the manner of town’s museums, which wish to discover problems with reminiscence associated with colonization.
Learn additionally: What colonial statues in public areas say about France
In 2022, the exhibition “In the Footsteps of Sergeant Blandan” opens the “Decolonial Stories” program on the Museum of Positive Arts in Nancy. The venture in the end got here to fruition with a public fee for the paintings from the director’s daughter, Dorothea-Miriam Kello. The paintings combines “history” and “history”, colonial politics and an intimate circle of relatives tale. It arises from the transmission of a hectic tale first silenced after which untied, after a length of anamnesis, in a gesture of filial transmission.
Positioned a couple of meters from the statue, the paintings is a round reflect, raised vertically, bearing the inscription of the creator’s poetic textual content, which starts with the sergeant’s query: “Who are you?” The textual content, written in French and Arabic – two writings that broaden as mirrors of one another, goals to problem the viewer who displays his floor in a passage that finds his floor.
Learn additionally: What colonial statues in public areas say about France
Dissonant countermonument
The mirrored image disrupts commonplace belief and lets in us to border the Blandan monument for our consideration, inviting mirrored image at the which means this emblematic colonial-era figurative statue may tackle these days.
After the compelled repatriation in 1963, after the independence of Algeria, and after the time of purgatory within the barracks, the statue was once re-erected in 1990 in the course of the intersection close to the barracks that bears his identify. It then strikes a couple of meters and repositions itself to take its position reverse the brand new constructions of ARTEM, an cutting edge college advanced.
The enforcing presence of the statue, then again, does now not save you this determine from being quite forgotten. That is why “in front of the statue of Sergeant Blandan, which has lost its historical meaning for most passers-by, but still has its influence, it stands like a mirror” (base textual content).
The paintings restores visibility to the unique monument, however by means of recontextualizing it, opening up “reinterpretations of colonial history,” providing “counterpoints” to the tale reasonably than replicas (Dorothy-Miriam Kellow’s speech all through the revealing).
It may be argued that the bodily house between the monuments creates a brand new discursive house that permits a discussion to be initiated concerning the more than one meanings of the statue. This discussion is fed by means of the sport of opposition: between the legit “history” and the circle of relatives “history” it impacts, between the reminiscence of army exploits and the reminiscence of the descendants of Algerian immigrant households. The counter-monument opens up an area for dialogue concerning the which means of the colonial heritage open to other, even contradictory interpretations. Intermonumental house additionally produces rigidity within the memorial geography of town. It resonates with the hot inauguration of an esplanade named after Francois Borella, a member of the PSU (United Socialist Celebration), a sufferer of the Group of the Secret Military (OAS), a gesture supposed to confirm town’s dedication to republican values.
With this counter-monument, “a trace added to a trace” (invitation card), a “space for relationship and critical reflection on the contemporary consequences of colonization” is opened (ibid.).
Thru this gesture, the Town of Nancy applies what we will name a coverage of heritage confrontation. Whilst heritage is generally regarded as the results of a consensus concerning the legacy of the previous that we wish to maintain, the time period right here takes on a extra advanced which means, involving the disagreements and disputes that colour it.
According to the brand new civic expressions of memorial calls for, the function of public statues has been changed: much less within the provider of enforcing and putting forward values than their debate and diffraction in public house.
Reminiscence Restore Antimonument
Along with the function of a counter-monument, the Pills will also be thought to be an anti-monument, within the sense that the artist Johann Gertz, in addition to his commentators, may just give this time period.
Consistent with Gertz, the anti-monument is an offer that, with its plastic and stylistic grammar, calls into query the purposes generally fulfilled by means of monuments – confirmation of values, illustration (of heroes, sufferers or allegories) – in want of openness for mirrored image and multiplication of imaginable meanings. The desk of disorientation has this type of humility and openness to interpretations that want the suspension of values. As Mathieu Klein says in his speech, the paintings “does not impose anything on us, it invites us to think.”
Probably the most putting characteristic of the desk is its modest measurement. Tall and leaning rather again, she is 1.59 meters – precisely the similar top as Sgt. Its roundness and smallness as such name into query the monumentality of the neighboring statue, which culminates in its huge plinth at nearly 4 meters in top. The readability and lightness of the Pill contrasts with the impact of heaviness and opacity given by means of the large ensemble of stone and bronze, which heroizes the colonial warrior, encapsulates warrior values and remembers the politics of imperialist conquest. Its shimmer activates passers-by to query themselves, with out prejudging their interpretations: it returns the topics to their very own mirrored image (actually and figuratively).
Whilst the angle of the sergeant, the mentions at the base, his bronze bas-reliefs and his memorial plaque give a contribution to the confirmation of the valorization of the heroic warrior who fell for colonization, the tableau invitations us to query those values and to re-open the wondering of those who we (the entire neighborhood) wish to see in public house these days. Thus, the paintings contributes to the controversy at the legacy of colonization and to the mirrored image at the position of descendants and minorities. As for previously silenced voices, it acts as a type of reminiscence restore.
What’s the orientation of the general public?
On the other hand, there could also be difficulties within the appropriation of the brand new monument by means of the general public. Certainly, the textual content engraved at the reflect, with its delicate letters, proved very tricky to decipher. All the way through the revealing rite, the primary audience spared no effort, getting as shut as imaginable to the glittering floor, shifting backwards and converting viewing angles. The Town Meeting deliberate a mediation program to reinforce the invention of recent public paintings in its context. This will likely definitely turn out helpful to make certain that the general public does now not be afflicted by over the top “disorientation”.
Possibly one must even believe including an enduring panel to supply interpretive reinforce to make sense of the paintings and the intermonumental house it generates. It could definitely be helpful for him to know the entire richness of this new monument, well-liked in its genesis, dissonant in concept, counter- and anti-monumental in its results.
Gaelle Crenn was once a member of the Inexperienced record all through the 2020 Nancy municipal elections.
