Postcolonial Reclamations

From Al-Berka to Sidi Hussein

Barah Gallery, Benghazi 2025

The art and architecture exhibition "Postcolonial Reclamations: From Al-Berka to Sidi Hussein" calls for new ways to engage with both the architectural design process and the role of architecture in post-colonial geographies.
From 1911 to 1943, entire new districts were constructed by Italian authorities in Benghazi, Libya, redrawing the urban fabric to align with developments happening on the mainland, or at other times proposing a totally new conceptions of exoticised Afro/Arab-Italian designs. The early 20th century hallmark of Modernism, reinforced concrete, became the norm for rationalist colonial architecture, while a pastiche of Islamic elements and Mediterranean porticos also lingered on in some public buildings.
The "reclamations" posited by the works on display are anchored in the methodology of the studio - Afro-Islamic means to conceive of architecture, with a focus on geometry, narrative, geology, landscape and materiality. But more than that, they are ways for local architects to engage with architectures that arrived on their doorstep from the outside world.
In the new school building proposed by Islam El-Fallah opposite a colonial school in El-Berka, local Ipomoea indica, an invasive ivy takes the facade as the years pass by. It highlights the evanescence of architecture over time against the forces of local nature. Likewise in the works of Raneem, Haya, Ahmed, landscape becomes a way to localise and engage with Italian and Ottoman urbanisms.
In the proposals of Ali Al-Na'as and Saif Elhasi, the entire history of native Libyan materials, mud, palm and limestone become a potent critique of Italian concrete. Scale and Islamic geometry in the train proposed by Ali al-Yedderi dives into over a thousand years of typeface to counterpose the rational plan.
All in all the works are a fascinating way to re-engage with colonial architecture at a time when Benghazi is witnessing major reconstruction works and questioning how to deal with its colonial legacy.

2025

1. Raneem bin-Fadhl, The Secret Casket.