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The Mothership

Yto Barrada

14.06.24 - Ongoing

Status: On now

Current Locations: Tangier

Inspired by Morocco’s rich textile traditions and the historical process of making natural dyes, Yto Barrada has created The Mothership on a plot of land perched on the coastline of Tangier overlooking the Mediterranean.

The Mothership is an 'eco-campus' for growing, making and learning; a meeting place where artists and artisans, botanists and ecologists, textile dyers and designers, students and visitors from Tangier and beyond can immerse themselves in the rich and varied world of natural dyes and explore the pleasures, politics and histories of colour. 

The project is reviving indigenous traditions and empowering communities, in particular women in Morocco, as well as encouraging experimental artistic practices. 

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Cultivating knowledge as well as plants is at the heart of Barrada’s vision for The Mothership. The Dye House serves as the main studio and educational space, built above the terraces in the garden to accommodate a wide range of classes, workshops and gatherings. 

The Dye House is a space for artistic and scientific exploration, research and production with a dye laboratory equipped with traditional and state-of-the-art facilities and tools. It has spaces for meetings and workshops, and a library for Yto Barrada’s personal archive of Moroccan and international textiles. 

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Yto Barrada

Born in Paris in 1971, Barrada moved with her parents to Tangier, the city which she continues to regard as home, in the mid-1970s. Over the past two decades, she has created an exceptional body of work in sculpture, photography, film and textiles, often drawing on the history and present of post-colonial Morocco, addressing issues of displacement and belonging. 

Barrada’s interest in the landscape and botany of Morocco informed her 2006 series A Life Full of Holes: the Strait Project and Iris Tingitana, 2007, which focused on the disappearance from Tangier of the iris, a flower whose ability to grow in poor soil symbolises resistance. In 2003, Barrada co-founded Cinémathèque de Tanger. Based in the restored Art Deco Cinéma Rif in the city, the Cinémathèque continues to be an important hub for the local community, showcasing Moroccan and international cinema and offering a range of classes and courses.

A one-person exhibition based on the Cinemathèque de Tanger was presented at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis in 2014. Barrada’s work has been exhibited at Tate Modern, MoMA, New York, the Renaissance Society, Chicago, Jeu de Paume, Paris and Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid.