Yto Barrada (b.1971, Paris, France) lives and works between Tangier, Morocco and New York, US
Yto Barrada works over a wide range of media including photography, sculpture, installations, textile and video, her extensive series and project-based practice is rooted in the culture, landscape, economy and politics of her hometown of Tangier, Morocco. In 2006 she founded Cinémathèque de Tanger, a cultural centre that has become a landmark institution bringing the Moroccan community together to celebrate local and international cinema. Barrada studied History and Political Science at the Sorbonne University, Paris, and photography at the International Center of Photography, New York (1996), where she explored strategies of survival in her artwork. Engaging with the performativity of archival practices and public interventions, Barrada’s installations reinterpret social relationships, uncover subaltern histories, and reveal the prevalence of fiction in institutionalised narratives. Representing France at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026), she also participated in the Whitney Biennial (2022), and has held solo exhibitions at Mathaf, Doha (2020); Barbican Centre, London (2018) and Power Plant, Toronto (2016). As well as being a part of major museum collections worldwide, Barrada’s work has won numerous awards including the Roy R. Neuberger Prize (2019), the Marcel Duchamp Prize Paris (2016) and the Deutsche Guggenheim Artist of the Year award (2011).