CINÉMATHÈQUE TANGIER: EXPLORING MOROCCOS RICH FILM HISTORY AND THE PRACTICE OF TANGIER-BASED ARTIST YTO BARRADA

Minneapolis, July 23 2013The Walker Art Center presents An Album: Cinémathèque Tangier, a project by Yto Barradaa mulitlayered exhibition of films, artworks, movie posters and ephemera exploring the practice of Tangier-based artist and filmmaker Yto Barrada, on view November 21, 2013 through May 18, 2014. Barrada's practice has recently encompassed the founding of an artist-run, independent cinema in the heart of Tangier. Opened in 2006, Cinémathèque Tangier occupies a theater constructed in the 1930s, an era that saw the rise of grand movie palaces. Today it not only operates as a fully functioning cinema with daily screenings, but as an archive and dynamic social space that engages various audiences with the city's rich film history. For the exhibition, the Walker's Burnet Gallery will be transformed into a compelling installation punctuated by a screening program of films culled from the cinémathèque's collection and the Walker's Ruben/Bentson Film Video Collection. Additionally, the show features artwork by Barrada including Palm Signs (2010), a sculpture in the form of a movie marquee, and Hand-Me-Downs (2011), a montage of super-8 home movies from the 1960s. Artist-commissioned movie posters will line the walls of the gallery, and and an archive area will house vintage movie posters, ephemera and Scopitone films created by Arab immigrants in Francemany from Morroco and other North African countries who traveled to work in Europe's post-WWII labor force. Together the constellation of works in the exhibition explores Barradas deep interest in the cinematic representation of Tangier as it relates to notions of collective memory and within the context of the region's politically and culturally loaded history.

Cinémathèque Tangier is co-presented by the Walker's Film/Video and Visual Arts departments.

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