Younes Baba-Ali
Younes Baba-Ali, Daily Wrestling (2018)
Younes Baba-Ali makes art that is unconventional, intelligent and critical, mostly in public space or places uncommon to art practice. He is a sharp observer and raises pertinent questions aimed at society, the institution and above all, his audience. As a free thinker he holds a mirror up to society and confronts it with its ingrained habits and dysfunctions. Baba-Ali’s work often assumes the form of the readymade, but underneath its facade of simplicity there is a complex exercise in balance at work. As an artist-alchemist he measures and mixes technology, objects, sound, video and photography with political, social and ecological issues. The resulting installations discreetly coerce the unsuspecting viewer into taking a stand. Baba-Ali shuns no controversy and often finds himself negotiating his art and its rationale with his environment. His works are context-specific and take their final form in dialogue with its spectators. This at times disruptive intervention art confronts the viewer in an ironical way with himself and his environment. Baba-Ali presents people dilemmas and taboos and challenges them to (re)act. In this way he makes them his accomplices in acts of artistic guerrilla that unite the establishment and the common man.
Works
Cabinet des confidences populaires, 2019 Installation including video, drawings and vending booth, Kanal-Pompidou Collection, Brussels
Without Negotiation I , 2018, Digital print on paper Baryta Rag 315gr with a black American box, 80x120 CM
Without Negotiation, Video, Durée: 09:36, 1/5 +2 EA
Daily Wrestling, 2018, Video and photographs
Daily Wrestling, 2018, Video and photographs. Frac Sud Collection.
Vu’Cumprà, 2016, Photograph of a performative urban intervention
Call for Prayer - Morse, 2011 Sound installation
Moroccan Anthem, 2013 HD video 16/9 Lenght : 2’11’’ in loop
Biography
© Matteo Lornardi
Younes Baba Ali was born in Oujda, Morocco, in 1986. As an interdisciplinary artist working with sound, multimedia installation photography, his work can take multiple forms: specific interventions in public spaces, performative gestures, re-contextualization of found objects.
He graduated from l’Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg in 2008 and from l’Ecole Supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence in 2011.
He had several solo exhibitions such as: « Bodies of Identities », Casino Luxembourg (2022); « Dégrisement », Galerie Talmart, Paris, France (2022); « Connexion#1 » Toison d’Or Gallery, Brussels, Belgium (2022); “Vu’Cumprà/Paraboles”, Bozar, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels, Belgium (2016).
He has participated in several international group exhibitions: Survival kit 14 Festival, Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia (2023); « Dérive en Péninsule » at L’Atlas, Paris, France (2023); « Le pas suspendu » Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels, Belgium (2022); « Time Is Going » 14th Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Dak’Art, Dakar (SN) (2022); Operation Corruption & Dilution, Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris (2021); “Généalogies Futures”, Lubumbashi Biennale, Congo RDC (2019); “Material Insanity“, curator Janine Gaëlle Dieudji & Meriem Berrada, MACAAL, Marrakech, Morocco (2019); “Digital Imaginaries - Africas in Production“, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (2018); “One place after another“, curator Viktor Misiano, The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow, Russia (2018); “Commissions“, curator Bernard Blistène & Yves Goldstein, KANAL - Centre Pompidou, Brussels, Belgium (2018); “Second Life“, curator Janine Gaëlle Dieudji, MACAAL, Marrakech, Morocco (2018); “Every Time A Ear di Sound”, the Documenta 14 Radio Program, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin (2017); “Marseille Résonance”, MuCEM, Marseille, France (2015); Dakar Biennale, curated by Christine Eyene & Nadira Laggoune, Dakar, Senegal (2012); “Higher Atlas” 4th Marrakech Biennial, curated by Carson Chan & Nadim Samman, Marrakech, Morocco (2012); just to name a few.
Younes Baba-Ali’s work is part of different collections, both private and public, such as Kanal – Centre Pompidou, Brussels in Belgium; Mu.ZEE, Ostend, Belgium; Middelheim, Antwerp in Belgium; FRAC PACA, Marseille, France; M Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
He was rewarded by the “Léopold Sédar Senghor” prize at the Dakar Biennale, Senegal in 2012 and the “Boghossian” prize during the Belgian “Art’Contest” in Brussels, Belgium in 2014. Winner of the 1rst Prize Eurovideo, Liège, Belgium (2015); He has been awarded the prestigious Villa Albertine Residency in 2024 in New York, USA. He also had several residencies, namely at Pioneer Works, New York (2023); “Digital Imaginaries”, Research Residency, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa (2018); Moussem, Nomadic Arts Center, Brussels, Belgium (2016); MAAC, Maison d’Art Actuel des Chartreux, Brussels, Belgium (2014); Pas de deux, Villa Romana, Florence, Italy (2013); Vive voix, Dakar, Senegal (2013), etc.
He lives and works between: Brussels in Belgium, Casablanca in Morocco and Dakar in Senegal .