Monument to the Dead of Algiers, or “Le Pavois”

Algiers, Algeria 1928

Commissioned by the city of Algiers, this monument was meant to show the close ties that bind the populations of Europe and Africa. This is notably visible in the group inscribed on the back of the monument. ‘The two women, the two old men, the European and the Arab lean on one another. The unity of emotion created a happy visual effect,’ Landowski wrote in his Journal in 1921. Unfortunately, to Algerians, the monument symbolized colonial oppression and was covered over with cement at the Independence.