Yto Barrada

This catalog-cum-artist’s book elaborates upon the extensive research conducted by French Moroccan artist Yto Barrada (born 1971) for her project Comme Saturne (Like Saturn) conceived for 61st Venice Biennale. Working across photography, film, sculpture and textile installation, Barrada is best known for her investigation into historical narratives and natural processes, the transmission of knowledge and methods of archiving and collection.
Like Saturn includes installation views and provides a detailed overview of Barrada’s latest experiments in the fields of color, language, mythmaking and material culture unveiled in Venice. Opening with a glossary of terms related to dyeing, fabrics and textile techniques, the volume then transitions into its core “plates” section, in which studio, artwork and reference imagery interacts with notes, quotations and oral memoirs to propose a subjective encyclopedia overturning Western conventions of the book.

For more than 20 years, French Moroccan artist Yto Barrada (born 1971) has explored natural and cultural phenomena as well as subaltern histories through films, installations, sculptures, textile works, photographs and site-specific projects. This long-awaited monograph spans her entire practice, from her first acclaimed photographic series A Life Full of Holes (1998–2004) to her most recent research on textile, dyeing and "color problems," in which she once more bridges nature, materiality and art history.
This volume unifies an international group of writers to decipher the methodologies and perspectives active in Barrada’s practice. The volume also highlights Barrada’s commitment to the city of Tangier, where she founded a cinema and an eco-feminist African campus and dye garden, as well as her relationship with American artist and longtime Chelsea Hotel resident Bettina Grossman (1927–2021), whose estate is in her care.

This book surveys the French Moroccan artist Yto Barrada’s (born 1971) photographs, films, videos, sculptures, prints and fabric works, as well as her archival practices and public interventions made over the last two decades.