Public-Realm: Adel Abdessemed

EXIT is a site-specific artwork by Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed centred on the familiar illuminated exit sign. By altering a single letter, Abdessemed transforms “exit” into “exil”, the French word for “exile”. Installed at the entrance to the exhibition venue, this subtle intervention shifts the meaning of an everyday sign, turning a familiar marker of departure and escape into a meditation on displacement, borders and exile.

The work carries a particular personal resonance for Abdessemed, who left Algeria in 1994 amid the country’s political turmoil. Through the transformation from “exit” to “exil”, the work connects the physical act of departure with the emotional and political dimensions of exile, while drawing on the universal symbolism of the exit sign as a marker of transition, movement and escape. EXIT brings together language, identity and migration, inviting viewers to reconsider the meanings embedded within familiar signs and symbols.