The complexity of representing life at the limits through Yto Barrada’s work
Keywords:
Yto Barrada, Homo sacer, Ariella Azoulay, Judith Butler, Hannah Arendt, Migrantes, Tangier
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Yto Barrada’s documentary photos and films show the complexity of life in the borderlands, migrants waiting for the right moment to cross the border and the effects of the border in the local population. And the artist represents it far away from any orientalist or exotic cliché. Some theorists have understood her work as the representation of individuals without agency, individuals devoid of representable identity. However, we propose in this article a new interpretation based on the theories of Ariella Azoulay, Judith Butler and Hannah Arendt. According to these interpretations, we understand that in Barrada’s work these individuals, and the city of Tangier itself, are made visible and represented as full of agency; and the visual memory of the city of Tangier and the society who inhabits it, is recovered and made visible.
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