PARIS.- Following a selection committee organized by the Institut français, Ms. Yto Barrada has been chosen to represent France at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2026. The decision of the committee, chaired by Ms. Claire Le Restif, director of the Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry – le Crédac, was approved by Mr. Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and Ms. Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture.
The jury selected Yto Barrada "for her multidisciplinary practice that unites various artistic and social communities in search of a new utopia. An iconoclastic researcher, a borderless and holistic artist, Yto Barrada reinvents 'social sculpture' through the lens of alternative pedagogies and transforms the canons of modernism into a plural garden. From Paris to Tangier, and through New York, she traces a unique cartography that gathers new voices—unseen, fragile, historical, or forgotten—to share their narratives. These are just some of the reasons that led the jury to invite Yto Barrada to unfold her worlds within the space of the French Pavilion and share them with the audiences of the Venice Biennale."
Born in 1971 in Paris, Yto Barrada is a Franco-Moroccan artist who lives and works between New York and Tangier. She studied history and political science at the Sorbonne, followed by photography in New York. Over the past 25 years, she has developed a multidisciplinary practice—including installation, film, photography, sculpture, textiles, and publishing—through long-term projects that address a wide range of topics, such as the role of play in alternative pedagogies, the politicization of botany in urban planning, the international trafficking of dinosaur fossils, colonial anthropology, Pan-Africanism, and cultural policies during the Cold War.
Simultaneously exploring cultural phenomena, natural processes, and historical narratives, Yto Barrada's work pays particular attention to the transmission of local know-how, the circulation of aesthetic forms, and strategies of social disobedience. Emphasizing community, artistic kinship, and collaboration with friends and family, her work often revisits modernist avant-garde movements.
In 2006, Yto Barrada co-founded the Cinémathèque de Tanger. She also created The Mothership, a research and residency center centered around a dye plant garden she has been cultivating for the past decade. *The Mothership* serves as a gathering place for artists, gardeners, and thinkers, promoting a feminist, ecological, and playful approach to creation and the transmission of knowledge.
Yto Barrada's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Jeu de Paume, Paris (2006); the Renaissance Society, Chicago (2011); Tate Modern, London (2011); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2013); Carré d'Art, Nîmes (2015); Barbican Centre, London (2018); MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts (2021); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2021); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2022); Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany (2023); Césure – Plateau Urbain as part of the Festival d'Automne (2023); and MoMA PS1, New York (2024), among others. She has also participated in numerous biennales, including Venice (2007, 2011), Sharjah (2011), Istanbul (2013), Marrakech (2016), Gwangju (2018), and Whitney (2022).
Yto Barrada's works are part of public collections worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou (Paris), MoMA (New York), Tate Modern (London), Kunsthalle Basel, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Reina Sofia (Madrid), Mathaf (Doha), and Mumok (Vienna), among others.
Among her distinctions, Yto Barrada was named Artist of the Year by the Deutsche Guggenheim in 2011. She received the Peabody Museum Fellowship (Harvard University) in 2013–2014, the Soros Arts Fellowship in 2023, and numerous awards, including the Abraaj Group Art Prize in 2015, the Roy R. Neuberger Prize in 2019, and both the Mario Merz Prize and the Queen Sonja Print Award in 2022.
She is represented by Polaris Gallery (Paris), Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Beirut, Hamburg), and Pace Gallery (New York, London, Seoul, Hong Kong, Geneva, Los Angeles, Tokyo).
