Kunsthaus Zürich's 'ReCollect!' invites artists to engage with the institution's collection, re-imagining, reinterpreting and reviewing the work within the context of the artist's practice, perspective and approach.
Over two decades, the work of artist Yto Barrada has spanned media including installations, film, photography, sculpture, printmaking, books, and textiles. For the Kunsthaus Zürich, Barrada has staged an encounter between her own multidisciplinary practice and various works from the museum’s collection while following a self-imposed rule: to exhibit only works created in 1971, the year of her birth. At the center of this exhibition is Barrada’s film essay 'A Day is Not a Day' (2022), a meditation on the industrial testing process known as ‘accelerated weathering’, which tests the durability of materials such as plastics, paints, and textiles against fading and corrosion.
Barrada has spent the past ten years mastering the lost traditional art and science of natural dyeing techniques, perhaps in response to the speed and violence of industrial production. In 2024, after several years of development, Barrada opened the doors of 'The Mothership' in her hometown Tangier: an eco-feminist research centre and artist residency, where dyeing techniques are combined with a collective art practice.
