«The blue Mediterranean is overflowing with tears » by Berirouche Feddal

The blue Mediterranean is overflowing with tears 

Blue is a sacred guardian in Kabyle culture. A symbol of hope, serenity, and protection against harmful influences, it embodies the depth of the ancestral identity and traditional wisdom of the Amazigh people who inhabit the mountains of northern Algeria, and represents a connection with the divine and the invisible. 

For his project Les larmes nourrissent le bleu méditerranéen / The blue Mediterranean is overflowing with tears, Berirouche Feddal uses L’Imagier as his canvas, subtly imbuing the entire space with his imagination. It is an intimate journey into self-acceptance, blending past and present, exploring time as an agent of degradation and transformation on objects, colours, and their symbolism.  

The exhibition draws its form from Berirouche Feddal’s childhood, transcending the institutional framework to make subtle references to the collective unconscious, such as the concepts of climate change, death, and nostalgia, while honouring the family inspirations and political realities that have shaped the artist’s practice.  

With shades of blue as its material axis, Les larmes nourrissent le bleu méditerranéen / The blue Mediterranean is overflowing with tears conveys a temporal poetry whose chromatic palette reflects a cross-contamination seen in the natural oxidation of rust or the gradual disappearance of pigments, the result of the passing of time. The exhibition touches on political and religious themes from a mystical and intimate angle, through the use of agrarian symbols rooted in the artist’s personal history and identity. This “selective pigmentation,” or the resistance of certain colours – notably blue – to fading, illustrates the effect of time and captures the resilience of memory, messages, and symbols. Blue thus becomes the emotional vehicle of its delicate oxidation.  

In an effort to connect his personal memories to the human experience, Berirouche Feddal seeks to convey the pain and emotions he has experienced in recent years. His exhibition evokes intimate and collective experiences such as the Berber, Arab, and Maple Springs, as well as the recent health crisis and the ensuing period of major change.  

The artist also uses blue to reflect the faded hues of the abandoned boats on the beaches of Algiers to evoke human erasure and clandestinity. This colour, which represents exile and the suffering associated with the loss of one’s homeland, takes on a particularly powerful meaning in the context of the Arab Spring and, more specifically, Algeria’s Hirak protest movement of 2019, whose blue banners became a robust symbol of resistance and hope. The effect of time is also evident in the iconography of political posters, advertisements, and faded presidential images, such as those of Bouteflika, used extensively in the artist’s practice. 

Berirouche Feddal sees this exhibition as a dialogue capturing the profound essence of identity and memory. He invites us to discover a world in which the colour blue becomes the narrator of a rich, nuanced history, and where the ephemeral nature of the material and the subtlety of artistic expression contend with the relentless passage of time. 

Alexandre Potvin, Curator

OPENING //

Friday, May 3rd, 7 to 9 PM at L’Imagier, in the presence of the artist and the curator.

Free Admission / DJ / Free Parking.

Artist Biography

Berirouche Feddal, born in Algeria in 1996 of Kabyle origin, currently resides and works in Montreal. He graduated from the print and media department at Concordia University in 2020 and has since presented several solo and duo exhibitions, notably at the Maison des arts de Laval (2022), the Conseil des arts de Montréal (2022), Bradley Ertaskiran in Montreal (2022), Afternoon Projects in Vancouver (2022), and La Conserverie Marrakech in Morocco (2019). Feddal has also exhibited as part of the Off Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal (2022), and collaborated with Art Souterrain for a presentation on the exterior facades of Ubisoft in Montreal (2021). He participated in the 4th edition of the ARTCH festival – Emerging Contemporary Art in Montreal (2021). His work can be found in the collections of the Pointe-à-Callière Museum, TD Bank, Hydro-Québec, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP and Global Affairs Canada.

Berirouche is represented by @mcbridecontemporain

Credits :

Design : Simon Guibord

Text Revision : Clovis-Lucas Houet-Larouche

English Translation : Jennifer Strachan

Photo : Oumayma Ben Tanfous