Yto Barrada's DEADHEAD exhibition at Fondazione Merz explores decolonial time through textiles and migration

Yto Barrada's solo exhibition DEADHEAD at Fondazione Merz in Turin presents works spanning two decades that challenge colonial and capitalist temporalities. The French-Moroccan artist, who will represent France at the 2024 Venice Biennale, incorporates photography, sculpture, textiles, film, and dyeing practices. Central to the show is the installation Lit-Ras-D’Eau I (Raft I) (2023), a life raft balanced on welded barrels with fabric resembling deconstructed national flags. Another key work, Tangier Island’s Wall (2022), features stacked white crab traps reflecting on parallel fates between Barrada’s hometown Tangier and Tangier Island in Virginia threatened by rising seas. The exhibition includes her Land and Water Forms series (2019) with minimalist renderings of geographical features, and the film Tree Identification for Beginners (2017) exploring her mother’s experience with Operation Crossroads Africa in 1966. Barrada’s nonprofit The Mothership in Tangier serves as an artist residence and dye garden where practitioners learn indigenous methods. Curated by Davide Quadrio and Giulia Turconi, the exhibition title references gardening practice while metaphorically addressing stolen rituals. Barrada’s early work A Life Full of Holes: The Strait Project examined migration through the Strait of Gibraltar following the 1991 Schengen Agreement. The exhibition runs until 18 May 2024.