Souvenir de l’Algérie: ID Studio is the first interactive portrait studio developed from Meriem Mecili’s ongoing archive of Algerian photographs. The work operates alongside Identity in Transition, a branch of the wider archive examining Algerian identity through post independence identification photography. Together, the two works consider how individuality was, and continues to be, expressed through clothing, hairstyle, jewellery, facial hair, posture and expression within the conventions of the identification portrait.
Commissioned specifically for Late at Tate Britain in response to Zineb Sedira’s exhibition When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks, the studio invited visitors to sit for their own identification portrait against a bespoke patterned backdrop. Each participant received four printed portraits, stamped and enclosed within a glassine sleeve as a personal souvenir of the evening.
By transforming the administrative portrait into a collective and participatory encounter, the work created a contemporary record of the people present while inviting each participant to decide how they wished to be seen and remembered.
Late at Tate Britain: Zineb Sedira, Dan Weill Photography
Throughout the evening, visitors entered the studio individually, with friends and with family. Within the recognisable format of identification photography, participants determined how they wished to pose and who they wished to be photographed alongside.
The resulting images form a contemporary counterpart to the historical photographs within Identity in Transition. Together, they demonstrate how the restricted format of the identification portrait can still hold expressions of individuality, intimacy, kinship and humour.
Designed by Mecili, the bespoke backdrop was constructed from individually drawn motifs rather than an existing pattern. At the centre of the design is a ceramic tile belonging to Mecili’s grandfather, which she reinterpreted through colour and added ornamentation before developing it into a repeating pattern. The paired birds and floral forms extend the visual language of Identity in Transition, drawing from Algerian decorative traditions including painted furniture, Casbah mirrors and the bird shaped photographic frame preserved within Mecili’s family archive.
Each portrait was formatted as four identification photographs on a 6 × 4 inch print. The design carried elements of the patterned backdrop into the finished souvenir and incorporated the handwritten title Souvenir de l’Algérie, taken from Mecili’s father’s notes. The prints were dated, stamped and enclosed within glassine sleeves. Each sleeve also contained a set of stickers depicting a maqnin bird, a bottle of Selecto, a Caprice sweet and a tile belonging to Mecili’s grandfather that was incorporated into the backdrop design. Together, these familiar objects connected the contemporary portraits to personal memory and the wider visual archive of Souvenir de l’Algérie.
Top: The Mecili family home, with the original tiled floor visible, Algiers, 1980s. Bottom left: detail of the original ceramic tile. Bottom right: Mecili’s digital reinterpretation for the ID Studio backdrop, 2026.
Courtesy of the Mecili family archive.
Participant souvenir pack: stamped glassine sleeve and illustrated sticker set, Souvenir de l’Algérie: ID Studio, 2026.
Commissioned by Tate Britain for Late at Tate Britain: Zineb Sedira, 14 August 2026.
Concept, artwork and studio design: Meriem Mecili
Production assistance: Flora Zejnullahi, Nora Zejnullahi and Erwan Le Bozec
Event photography: Late at Tate Britain: Zineb Sedira, Dan Weill Photography
Concept, artwork and studio design: Meriem Mecili
Production assistance: Flora Zejnullahi, Nora Zejnullahi and Erwan Le Bozec
Event photography: Late at Tate Britain: Zineb Sedira, Dan Weill Photography