Yto Barrada is a multimedia visual artist known for her investigations of cultural phenomena and historical narratives. She was born in Paris, but currently lives and works in Morocco and New York City.
On Thursday, April 25, she’ll unveil Le Grand Soir, a large-scale composition of colorful concrete blocks stacked into pyramidal towers, at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City. (As of press time, the exhibition didn’t have an end date.)
A two-year commission that continues MoMA PS1’s history of inviting artists to respond to its unique campus, Le Grand Soir is 53-year-old Barrada’s first major outdoor work. Its formations draw inspiration from the construction of human pyramids in Morocco, Moroccan Brutalism, and Barrada’s family lore.
Admission to MoMA PS1 is free for New Yorkers. Outlanders pay $10 with 50 percent discounts for seniors and students. Those under age 17 can enter for free.
Human pyramids were first used by warriors as ladders to peer over fortifications and climb enemy walls. Today, Moroccan acrobats carry on the tradition of presenting human pyramids in town squares.
Le Grand Soir also finds inspiration in Barrada’s personal history. In 1963, her father was condemned to death for his political activism in Morocco. He escaped by crossing borders in disguise and remained in exile until the 1970s.
“I am thrilled to be presenting my first large-scale outdoor sculpture in the courtyard at MoMA PS1,” she stated. “We increasingly live in a world of walls, the ones built by the powerful to exclude or contain. As someone who has long researched strategies of resistance, I have centered this project on another form: the pyramid, which instead of walls offers steps, games, secrets, and possibilities. I wanted to combine the reliability of geometry with the precarity of body structures, celebrating forms of solidarity and escape.”
Barrada’s work has been exhibited around the world, including at The Museum of Modern Art (NYC), The Renaissance Society (Chicago), Haus der Kunst (Munich), and Whitechapel Gallery (London). She also has pieces in public collections at MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, and London’s Tate Modern.
In 2006, she co-founded Cinémathèque de Tanger, one of North Africa’s first art house cinemas. Then in 2021, she founded The Mothership, an eco-feminist research center and residency in Morocco.
Located at 22-25 Jackson Ave., MoMA PS1 is accessible via the 7, E, G, and M lines to the Court Sq.-23rd St. and 21st St.-Van Alst subway stations.
Le Grand Soir is organized by MoMA PS1 Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs Ruba Katrib and Assistant Curator Jody Graf. The exhibition is made possible by Allianz with generous support from the Jacques & Natasha Gelman Foundation.
Top image: Yto Barrada; bottom image: MoMA PS1