we dreamt of utopia and we woke up screaming. all before… all after…Yasmina Reggad explores radio as a tool for liberation. Over the years, performance artist, author, researcher and curator Yasmina Reggad has assembled a large archive of revolutionary voices. The exhibition is conceived as a durational performative installation, transforming this archive into a living, sonic space where historical events and current political struggles intertwine.

The installation highlights the role of radio in supporting the development and dissemination of global anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist ideas. Reggad gained access to archival material from Algerian Radio and Television Broadcasting (Radiodiffusion-Télévision Algérienne; RTA) from the 1960s and 1980s. She contributes to this polyglot archive by including present-day voices and bringing them together with past ones, such as the French-Martinican psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon and Palestinian resistance fighter and politician Yasser Arafat.
all before… all after… is the latest manifestation of Reggad’s research and consists of a radio studio, a monitoring centre and an online streaming platform. Visitors can engage by transcribing the content of audio cassettes on typewriters, thus reconstructing the scripts of lost histories, or becoming broadcasters themselves. An open mic can be used to claim space or amplify militant voices. The exhibition extends beyond its physical space, continuing online with 24-hour livestream.

By immersing audiences in the echoes of past and present militant movements, Reggad’s work emphasises the ongoing need for resistance. It invites participants to listen and engage, to rethink solidarity today and imagine other possible futures.

Following Silent Times, which explored oppression and silenced voices, we dreamt of utopia and we woke up screaming. all before… all after… shifts the focus to amplifying militant voices and fostering political engagement. It not only reactivates histories of resistance but sparks imagination for alternative futures shaped by solidarity, liberation and collective action.