62

Djamaa El Djazair Mosque is one of the emblematic projects on the Bay of Algiers: a project that illustrates how politicians use prestigious projects to affirm their ideology and influence how the city’s identity is formed. Like other grand projects across the world, such as the Louvre in Paris, the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, and the Capital Gate Tower in Abu Dhabi, this project is part of a quite recurrent practice of politicians aspiring to a certain longevity and an affirmation of their role as creators of new icons. The legitimacy of Djamaa El Djazair comes from its pretention to reflect a certain national identity in a globalized postmodern world, where more than ever image and communication are at the core of forming identities. It illustrates the unease that characterizes North African societies today as they search for a certain authenticity that was for a long time jeopardized by successive colonizations and by socioeconomic and political imbalance. Indeed, as an inescapable element of the urban landscape in the land of Islam, the mosque, due to its architecture, constitutes a means of expressing the evolution of local cultural identities. The Djamaa El Djazair project, then, is an opportunity to produce an original work, the expression of a reappropriated cultural identity. This article will investigate the context of the emergence of the project and identify the issues and the impact on a territory that is itself emblematic: the Bay of Algiers.