Deutsche Guggenheim
Berlin
Unter den Linden 13/15
+49 30 202093-0 FAX +49 30 202093-20
WEB
Yto Barrada
dal 13/4/2011 al 18/6/2011

Segnalato da

Johannes Marten


approfondimenti

Yto Barrada



 
calendario eventi  :: 




13/4/2011

Yto Barrada

Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin

'Riffs' is the first large-scale exhibition in Germany of the work of Yto Barrada, whose photographs, films, publications, installations and sculptures engage with the peculiar situation of her hometown of Tangier, Morocco. The work of Barrada resists any simplification of the context of immigration - that great European "issue" - on the globalized world. The show is conceived as a construction in three-dimensional space and a deliberate juxtaposition of new and past works.


comunicato stampa

Deutsche Bank presents the “Artist of the Year” 2011
Yto Barrada: Riffs

Yto Barrada’s work - photographs, films, publications, installations and sculptures - engage with the peculiar situation of
her hometown of Tangier, Morocco. In her first series A Life Full of Holes: The Strait Project, Barrada depicts Tangier
where postcolonial history has materialized one of its dead-ends. Her recent project Iris Tingitana extends this inquiry to
the fast-growing modern city, where new construction meets the landscape of northern Morocco. “Riffs” is a term from
music, and also evokes the Rif mountains of Morocco, home to insurgencies and a splinter Republic, and the Rif Cinema,
home to the Tangier Cinémathèque, co-founded and directed by Barrada.

The show Riffs is conceived as a construction in three-dimensional space and a deliberate juxtaposition of new and past
works. It plays on the varying distances between Barrada’s lens and her subjects, and displays the full range of media in
which she works.

On the recommendation of the Deutsche Bank Global Art Advisory Council, consisting of curators Okwui Enwezor, Hou Hanru, Udo Kittelmann and Nancy Spector and chaired by Pierre de Weck, member of Deutsche Bank AG's Executive Committee, the bank honors young artists who have already created an extraordinary oeuvre in which works on paper or photography play an important role.

As "Artist of the Year," Yto Barrada will be presented in a comprehensive solo exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin from April 15 to June 19, 2011, which will subsequently be shown at other international institutions. Unlike many other prizes, the "Artist of the Year" award does not include prize money, but is firmly embedded in Deutsche Bank’s art program, with which the bank has made contemporary art accessible to the public worldwide for 30 years. An extensive publication will accompany the exhibition and Barrada will realize an exclusive artist’s edition for the show in Berlin. In addition, the bank is acquiring a selection of works on paper by the artist for its collection. After Wangechi Mutu in 2010, Yto Barrada is the second artist to be named Deutsche Bank "Artist of the Year." As of the end of 2010, an entire floor of the bank’s modernized corporate headquarters in Frankfurt will be devoted to her work.

Barrada’s work - photographs, films, publications, installations and objects - reflects the peculiar situation of her hometown, Tangier, and the way notions of local and global are articulated there. At the northern tip of Morocco, Tangier is a city of several frontiers. One border is the Strait of Gibraltar: the 13 km wide stretch of dangerous currents which divides Africa from Europe has come to symbolize the odyssey of the immigrant, and the existential issues of a society dominated by a desire to leave. Another frontier of this fast-growing city of a million souls runs along its shifting outer edge, where new construction meets the landscape of northern Morocco. There, a quieter drama is played out as the diversity of local people and wildlife yield to the bulldozers and concrete trucks, and the monocultural vision of the planners and developers who command them.

The work of Yto Barrada resists any simplification of the context of immigration - that great European "issue" - on the globalized world. In the photo series A Life Full of Holes: The Strait Project, which she began in 1998, the artist portrays the city and its residents in a kind of everlasting waiting state. The suspended expectation of the people relates at the same time to their personal imaginary, to the ancient myths of remission and death, as well as to the present geographic and political situation. Her recent project, Iris Tingitana has extended Barrada's inquiry to the landscapes that surround Tangier. These works records the shifting border between city and nature, and the accompanying homogenization of the country's urban and botanical surfaces.

Barrada grew up between Tangier and Paris, where she studied history and political science at the Sorbonne, and subsequently attended the International Center of Photography in New York. Her practice, combining the strategies of documentary with a more meditative approach of images drove her to return home, after sixteen years abroad. There, she continues to explore the many levels of a complex reality, avoiding the rigidity of any discourse, and without showing any dramatic event. Barrada's work evokes a Tangier where postcolonial history has materialized one of its dead-ends. And another response of this artist to the dynamics of the region was to co-found the Cinémathèque de Tanger, North Africa's first cinema cultural center, which she now directs. The Cinémathèque offers another way to invest herself into the status of images and representations, specifically in the Arab world.

Image: Le Salon (The Living Room), 2008/2011 C-print, 150 × 150 cm

Press Contact:
Johannes Marten: johannes.marten@db.com t: +49 (0)30 3407 4461, Deutsche Bank
Britta Färber: britta.faerber@db.com t: +49 (0)69 910 35960, Deutsche Bank
Sara Bernshausen: sara.bernshausen@db.com t: +49 (0)30 202093 14, Deutsche Bank CC Art

Press Conference: Thursday, April 14, 2011, 11 am
Atrium of Deutsche Bank Entrance: Charlottenstraße 37

Deutsche Guggenheim
Unter den Linden 13/15 - 10117 Berlin
Opening Hours:
daily 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Including Deutsche Guggenheim SHOP and CAFE
Admission:
4 Euros, reduced 3 Euros - free entrance on Mondays

IN ARCHIVIO [30]
Gabriel Orozco
dal 5/7/2012 al 20/10/2012

Attiva la tua LINEA DIRETTA con questa sede