Yto Barrada
Artist
Biography
Yto Barrada developed her interest in photography while documenting roadblocks on the West Bank in Jerusalem for her political science dissertation.
Politics has remained a powerful source of inspiration for Barrada’s work. In Disorientation II, Barrada showed Gran Royal Turismo: Learning Sculpture Series (2003), in which a miniature road racing set carries a motorcade of Mercedes limousines on an official visit through a poor North African village. As the visitors approach, palm trees push up from the ground and flags blossom along the route, only to disappear again as the cars roll past.
Barrada is perhaps best known for the photographic series The Strait Project which documents the Straits of Gibraltar and the powerful role it plays in both the life and the imagination of many Moroccans. The photographs were published in A Life Full of Holes: The Strait Project, by Autograph ABP in 2005.
Yto Barrada had participated in international exhibitions including the Nottingham Contemporary, UK (2010), the Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center of Photography, New York (2009), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2009), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2009), Museum of Modern Art Oxford (2009), Queen’s Museum of Art, New York (2009), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2008), Venice Biennale (2007), Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (2007), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2007) and a solo exhibition at the Witte de With, Rotterdam (2004).
In 2006, Barrada was awarded the first Ellen Auerbach Award in Berlin and was shortlisted for the 2006 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. Her work is included in public collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Yto Barrada had participated in international exhibitions including the Nottingham Contemporary, UK (2010), the Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center of Photography, New York (2009), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2009), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2009), Museum of Modern Art Oxford (2009), Queen’s Museum of Art, New York (2009), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2008), Venice Biennale (2007), Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (2007), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2007) and a solo exhibition at the Witte de With, Rotterdam (2004).
In 2006, Barrada was awarded the first Ellen Auerbach Award in Berlin and was shortlisted for the 2006 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. Her work is included in public collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
She is the director and co-founder of the Cinémathèque de Tanger in Tangier, Morocco. Born in Paris in 1971 and educated in Tangier, Yto Barrada studied history and political science at the Sorbonne, Paris and photography at the International Centre of Photography, New York. The artist currently lives and works in Tangier.
October 2010
This person is part of Sharjah Biennial 10
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