Page 179 - The 60.Venice Biennial & MoMA issue of WOA Contemporary Art magazine

YTO BARRADA:
LE GRAND SOIR
MOMA PS1 PRESENTS MAJOR OUTDOOR INSTALLATION
BY ARTIST YTO BARRADA

Artist Yto Barrada (Moroccan-French, b. 1971) will transform
the MoMA PS1 courtyard with a large-scale installation
titled Le Grand Soir, a two-year commission that continues
PS1’s history of inviting artists to respond to its unique
campus. Opening April 25, Barrada’s first major outdoor
work is composed of colorful concrete blocks stacked
into pyramidal towers whose lower levels visitors can sit
on and explore, providing an interactive experience in the
courtyard and a setting for PS1’s signature summer music
series Warm Up. The sculptures’ formations draw inspiration
from multiple histories of surmounting barricades and
Yto Barrada. Le Grand Soir (detail). 2024. Courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kris Graves
retooling architectures: the construction of human pyramids
in Morocco, Moroccan Brutalism, and Barrada’s family lore. Installation view of Yto Barrada: Le Grand Soir, on view at MoMA PS1 from April
As Barrada states, “I am thrilled to be presenting my first 25, 2024 through 2026. Photo: Adam Reich
large-scale outdoor sculpture in the courtyard at MoMA PS1.
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.”
The exhibition is organized by Ruba Katrib, Curator and
Director of Curatorial Affairs, and Jody Graf, Assistant
Curator, MoMA PS1.

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