The Memorial to the Liberation of Algeria is a brutalist monument on Boulevard Mohamed-Khemisti in Algiers. It was designed in 1978 by Algerian visual artist M'hamed Issiakhem, as Algiers was preparing to host the 1978 All-Africa Games. The memorial incorporates an earlier sculpted group from the French colonial era, formerly known as the monument aux morts or Le Pavois (referring to a shield used to carry somebody on high), no longer visible but still extant beneath a concrete casing.
Le Pavois was designed by architects Maurice Gras et and sculptors Paul Landowski and, winners of the public design competition in 1920, and inaugurated on .[1] It featured a winged Victory evoking Marianne between a French poilu and an Algerian spahi, all three on horseback and together holding a shield (French: pavois) on which rests the body of a fallen World War I combatant.[2] Additional figures included two women and two old men on the monument's back, intended to symbolize the emotional ties between the diverse communities of French Algeria.[3]
Issiakhem's design was a conscious endeavor to preserve the French colonial monument, which also honored the suffering of Algerian fighters, while removing it from public view.[2]