Yto Barrada / Tracing the Future

Yto Barrada
What happens when a country sees a substantial part of its heritage disappear abroad? And how do you deal with a past that has been under pressure from the drive towards modernization and renewal? The answer of the Franco-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada (1971, Paris) is as refreshingly sobering as it is clear: who is threatened with losing their past can always create a new one.

In her latest series of photos, films and installations, Yto Barrada questions the rich world's fetishistic thirst for foreign objects, offers a sly meditation on “authenticity” and “tradition,” and revels in artisanal creativity—even when it stretches to making fakes. Barrada’s solo exhibition at M includes her latest film, Faux Départ (2015), and a new installation, Salon Géologique (2016). Thus investigating the legacy of failed utopia’s, Barrada’s project for Leuven grants a central role to fossils, the notion of the imprint, and child's play. At the same time, it develops a reflection on the future of the ethnographic museum.

Yto Barrada is realized by M – Museum Leuven in collaboration with KU Leuven as a part of Tracing the Future, a group show at five different locations throughout the city of Leuven. It is organized within the larger framework of celebrating the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s book Utopia in Leuven.

Yto Barrada was the Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year for 2011, after which her exhibit RIFFS toured widely. Barrada is also the founding director of Cinémathèque de Tanger. She is the recipient of multiple fellowships and awards, and has recently been nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize.

Tracing the Future

Artists: Ursula Biemann & Paulo Tavares, Martin Le Chevallier, The Otolith Group, Allan Sekula and Adrien Tirtiaux

Is More’s Utopia still a source of inspiration for artists today? Shedding a critical light on the ecological, political and social impact of contemporary utopias, the participating works display the successes and failures of the quest for an ideal world.

Art tour organized as part of 500 Years Utopia and realized by the Commission of Contemporary Art of the KU Leuven and M-Museum Leuven conjointly with the Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography, Art and Visual Culture (LGC), and the KU Leuven Institute of Philosophy.

Tracing the Future enjoys the support of: vzw KU[N]ST Leuven, Flemish Community, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, KADOC, Campusservice, Monuments and Architectural Maintenance Division, Art and Heritage Office, University Library and Research Fund KU Leuven, City of Leuven, Visit Leuven, Allan Sekula Studio LLC, M HKA, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, and Research Foundation-Flanders.

Both exhibitions are curated by Stéphane Symons, Hilde Van Gelder and Eva Wittocx

Allan Sekula: Mining Section (Bureau des mines), with works from the collection of M HKA, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, is curated by Anja Isabel Schneider

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For more information, please contact Veerle Ausloos: veerle.ausloos@leuven.be