Yto Barrada
The artist's activist approach navigates between historical reality and ecological projection.
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16 mm film
Co-production of L'appartement 22 and the artist, with the support of the Goethe Institut Morocco.
The film begins with the artist’s voice-over – "Some 5000 building permits were issued in the city this year" – and later expresses hope that the tree will have a 50% chance of survival. It is an uncertainty that warns of fatality more than it offers a civic or ecologically conscious lesson. The spectator is hooked by the film’s plot with the image of people passing by who watch and comment on this "illegal" act taking place in broad daylight. It is cinema that acts on the real, and image validates gesture.
© Still: Yto Barrada
The artist's activist approach navigates between historical reality and ecological projection.