2022 Wolf Chair in Photography Yto Barrada gives an artist's talk about her work. Barrada is recognized for her multidisciplinary investigations of cultural phenomena and historical narratives. Her solo exhibition “Bad Color Combo” is currently on view at The Stedelijk in Amsterdam. Barrada is further in the course of setting up The Mothership in Tangier, an eco-feminist research centre and residency, centered around a dye garden. 

Engaging with archival practices and public interventions, Barrada’s installations uncover subaltern histories, and celebrate everyday forms of reclaiming autonomy. Informed by postcolonial thought and socio-political concerns, Barrada’s interests range from the tensions around borders, immigration, and tourism to the urban landscape, and from children’s toys to botany and paleontology. Her practice encompasses film, photography, sculpture, painting, printmaking, and publishing, while her installations often comprise both original work and found objects. Nonverbal communication, family myths, “hidden transcripts” that unearth new grammars—within the interlinked logic of Barrada’s work lie secrets, pleasures, and a celebration of strategies of resistance to domination. 

Attendees must show proof of vaccination. Masks are encouraged.

Yto Barrada (b. 1971, Paris) lives in New York and Tangier. Her work has been exhibited by Tate Modern, MoMA, The Metropolitan Museum, Renaissance Society, the Walker Art Center, Whitechapel Gallery, The Power Plant, The Serralves Foundation, and the 2007 and 2011 Venice Biennales. She participated in the 2022 Whitney Biennial, “Quiet as it’s kept”. Barrada’s work has won numerous awards including the 2022 Queen Sonya Print Award, 2019 Roy R. Neuberger Prize, the Rotterdam Film Festival 2016 Tiger Award for short film, a nomination for the 2016 Prix Marcel Duchamp in Paris, the 2015 Abraaj Group Art Prize, The Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography (Peabody Museum at Harvard University), and the 2011 Deutsche Guggenheim Artist of the Year award. She has taught at Bard College, The Cooper Union, and the Vevey School of Photography. She is the founding director of the Cinémathèque de Tanger, an art-house cinema that has become a landmark institution bringing the Moroccan community together to celebrate local and international cinema.