Navigating the intersection of institutional power, identity, and postcolonial discourse, artist and choreographer Youness Atbane examines how contemporary art spaces shape cultural narrative. Through performance works like Untitled 14 km and Waterproofed Artists, Atbane interrogates the elitism of the global art world while drawing on his roots in Moroccan pottery traditions and choreography to move beyond the limitations of spoken language. Blending speculative fiction with subtle humor, the discussion explores the Andalusian legacy, the politics of curation, and the true cost of artistic freedom.
Navigating the intersection of institutional power, identity, and postcolonial discourse, artist and choreographer Youness Atbane examines how contemporary art spaces shape cultural narrative. Through performance works like Untitled 14 km and Waterproofed Artists, Atbane interrogates the elitism of the global art world while drawing on his roots in Moroccan pottery traditions and choreography to move beyond the limitations of spoken language. Blending speculative fiction with subtle humor, the discussion explores the Andalusian legacy, the politics of curation, and the true cost of artistic freedom.
00:00 Introduction
02:30 Body Form and Translating Clay
08:33 Movement as a Universal Language
10:47 Urban Emergencies
15:50 Giving Form to the Unknown
17:33 Waterproofed Artists and Speculative Futures
20:41 Postcolonial Limits and Elitism
25:25 Navigating the Global Art Market
28:53 Audience Expectations in Berlin and Casablanca
31:45 Text Language and Humor in Performance
36:00 Untitled 14 km and Andalusian Legacy
37:44 The Imaginary Museum
44:00 Deconstructing the Star Curator
47:03 Rereading Golden Age Poetry
Youness Atbane is born in 1982 and currently lives and works between Casablanca and Berlin. His artistic practice is based on a critical relationship to the fields of art, its actors and its geopolitics. He began to follow different programs and gained artistic experiences in the fields of performance and visual art in France, Morocco, Belgium, and Spain. In 2008, he took part in the Master performing art program EX E.R.CE08 at the CCN of Montpelier. In 2010, he graduated with a master in Art, Literature and Museology from the University of Nice. His practice consists of three areas: live performance as a space of reflection, installation making as an outcome of the performance act and photography and drawing as an archive. All three areas are interconnected and interdependent. He has exhibited his installations and performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, the parallel project in the Venice Biennale in 2011, Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art Mohammed VI in Rabat, the Ostrale Biennale in Dresden, Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco, MassMOCA in Massachusetts, the British Museum, and MUCEM in Marseille. He received the ZKB Acknowledgement Prize in 2018.
Connect with Youness Atbane 👉 https://www.instagram.com/atbane_youness/