Yto Barrada

Bad Color Combos

Takeaway info:
Booklet PDF for reading

Eine hochkant stehende türkisgrüne Farbfläche. An den Rändern ist etwas Untergrund zu sehen. Darauf ein ausgerissenes Stück Pappe in der Form eines Trichters, anscheinend ausgerissen. Diese Form ist grau und am rechtren Rand helltürkis.
Yto Barrada, Iris Tingitana, 2019, collage on paper, 31.5 x 20.5 cm. © Yto Barrada, courtesy Pace Gallery and Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut/Hamburg

Yto Barrada (born 1971, lives in New York and Tangier) works in a variety of media: installation, film, photography, textiles, and sculpture. In her works she addresses social, cultural and political issues.
Bad Color Combos features works that negotiate man’s relationship to nature, processes of learning and knowledge transmission, the questioning of cultural and artistic traditions, the examination of private and political history, and the meaning of color and form. Central to Barrada’s work is resistance – against traditions, against power structures and role models. Learning and play are for her basic prerequisites to be able to work independently.
Thinking and critical questioning of the present.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Kunststiftung NRW and the Kulturstiftung pro Bielefeld.

Eine Frau mit braunschwarzem Haar, Ponyfrisur. Sie hat braune Augen.
Yto Barrada. Porträt

Born in Paris and raised in Tangier, on the border between Africa and Europe, cultural dialogue is at the heart of many of Barrada’s works. Not infrequently, her hometown itself becomes the starting point for her artistic exploration. In 2006, Barrada founded the Cinémathèque de Tanger, North Africa’s first film and cultural center. Her latest project is The Mothership, artist residency and research center in Tangier. Plant extracts from The Mothership’s garden provided the colors for many of the artworks in this exhibit.

Movies

This exhibition presents three of Barrada’s most important films: Tree Identification for Beginners (2017), The Power of Two or Three Suns (2020), and Continental Drift (2022).

On one surface geometric bodies can be seen. In front a transparent triangle, behind it a red cube, on the left a blue pyramid, on the right a yellow sphere.
Yto Barrada, Tree Identification for Beginners, 2018, film still. © Yto Barrada, courtesy Pace Gallery and Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut/Hamburg.

“The work explores the tension between her [Yto Barradas Mutter] recollection of the trip versus the accounts and expectations of her hosts and herself after a seven-week journey. She always feels out of place. She is middle class and the children are all richer than her. She is a socialist, the others are future prime ministers. It is the turbulent summer of 1966 with the Pan-African Movement, the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. The leader of the left in Morocco had just been assassinated. She’s an amazingly determined young woman in her 20s.”
Yto Barrada

Community: The Mothership

Ein Garten mit gelb blühenden Blumen im Vordergrund. Weiter hinten ein Haus mit der Aufschrift "The Mothership". Hinter dem Haus sonnenbeschienene Bäume.
Yto Barrada. The Mothership, Tangier. Künstler*innenresidenz. Foto: Leontine Coelewij

In addition to her socio-political concerns, Yto Barrada’s artistic practice is based on the idea of community, artistic kinship, and collaboration with friends* and family.

“It’s called ‘The Mothership’ for a lot of reasons – my parents still live right next door, and some of the inspiration comes from my mother and her community-building work, but also from the history of Afrofuturism and ecofeminism. We create a space where all forms of lost knowledge can be gathered to rethink issues of identity, consumption, community building, and land justice through art and print. It’s a workshop and residency project for all kinds of actors interested in radical change.”
Yto Barrada

About Yto Barrada

Yto Barrada was born in 1971, grew up in Tangier, Morocco, and studied history and political science at the Sorbonne in Paris. She now lives and works between New York and Tangier. Yto Barrada has been awarded numerous prizes, most recently the 2022 Mario Merz Prize, Turin. Her work has been exhibited at Tate Modern (London), MoMA (New York), Renaissance Society (Chicago), Kulturinstituut Melly (Rotterdam), Haus der Kunst (Munich), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Whitechapel Gallery (London), and the Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2011.

The exhibition is created in cooperation with the
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Gallerie

Fotografie eines Kunstwerks der Künstlerin Yto Barrada. Von einem Punkt in der Mitte am unteren Bildrand gehen Strahlen in alle Richtungen. Es sind abwechselnd graue Strahlen und orange, gelbe oder rosafarbene Strahlen. Die Farben sind nicht kräftig, weil sie aus Pflanzen hergestellt wurden.
Yto Barrada, Untitled (After Stella, Sunrise II), 2020, cotton and dyes from plant extracts, 56" × 55-3/4" (142.2 cm × 141.6 cm), unframed, 56-1/2" × 56-1/4" × 2-3/4" (143.5 cm × 142.9 cm × 7 cm), framed, unique, #77115, Format of photography: high res TIF.
Eine hochkant stehende türkisgrüne Farbfläche. An den Rändern ist etwas Untergrund zu sehen. Darauf ein ausgerissenes Stück Pappe in der Form eines Trichters, anscheinend ausgerissen. Diese Form ist grau und am rechtren Rand helltürkis.
Yto Barrada, Iris Tingitana, 2019, collage on paper, 31.5 x 20.5 cm. © Yto Barrada, courtesy Pace Gallery and Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut/Hamburg
Zu sehen sind verschiedene, meist rechtviereckige Formen in verschiedenen Farben auf einem schwarzen Hintergrund. Die Formen sind senkrecht und waagerecht angeordnet.
Yto Barrada, Untitled (indigo grey), 2021, Silk, dyes from natural extracts, 55-1/2" × 49-1/2" (141 cm × 125.7 cm), #79792, Format of original photography: high res TIF, Photography by Damian Griffiths
Auf einer hochkant stehendenen schwarzen Fläche sind gelbe, beige, weiße und schwarze rechteckige Formen zu sehen. Die Farben sind ungleichmäßig aufgetragen.
Yto Barrada, Untitled (cosmos yellow), 2021, Silk, dyes from natural extracts, 58-1/4" × 43-1/2" (148 cm × 110.5 cm), #79791, Format of original photography: high res TIF, Photography by Damian Griffiths
Auf einer rechteckigen weißen Fläche sind schwarze, beige, gelbe und altrosa abstrakte Formen zu sehen. Eine Fläche davon wirkt geknickt.
Yto Barrada, Plan for a dye garden (Figure #3), 2019, handgefärbte Seide mit Pflanzen- und Insektenextrakten, 119.4 x 99.1 cm. © Yto Barrada, courtesy Pace Gallery and Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut/Hamburg.
Zu sehen sind 3 Reihen von Stoffproben in vielen verschiedenen Farben, die in einem Apparat um eine neonlampenartige Röhre aufgespannt sind.
Film Still of: Yto Barrada, The Power of Two or Three Suns, 2020, 16mm transferred to digital video, sound, color, 11 minutes, 11 seconds, Edition 3 of 5, Edition of 5 + 2 APs [Edition size TBC], VIDEO, No. 76984.03, format of photography: digital, source of photography: Yto Barrada Studio.
Auf einer Fläche sind geometrische Körper zu sehen. Vorne ein durchsichtiges Dreieck, dahinter ein roter Würfel, links eine blaue Pyramide, rechts daneben eine gelbe Kugel.
Film Still of: Yto Barrada, Tree Identification for Beginners, 2017, 16 mm film transferred to digital, color, sound, 36 minutes, Edition 1 of 5, Edition of 5 + 2 APs, VIDEO, No. 68989.01, format of photography: digital, source of photography: Yto Barrada Studio.