Press Kit Exposición Desencuentro(s) by Younes Baba Ali, Galería Sabrina Amrani, Jan-Febr 2012

1. ‘Desencuentro(s)’
by Younes Baba-Ali
From next 11th January until 18th February,
in Sabrina Amrani Gallery
An eye in the West, and another across the Gibraltar Strait. The
migrant vision of the Moroccan artist Younes Baba-Ali (Oujda, 1986)
stars in his upcoming exhibition 'Desencuentro(s)' (Unecounters) in
Sabrina Amrani Art Gallery (Madera, 23. Madrid). The exhibition
reflects on the process of migration, but also on the hypermodern
man's anonymity increasingly away from the idea of community.
Audio, video, installations, drawings and even objects that have had
their own migration to Europe make this proposal of blithe spirit, with
which Sabrina Amrani continues her approach to the art that is emer-
ging in North Africa and Middle East.
Baba-Ali says that without the interaction of the spectators, many of
his pieces are meaningless. Therefore, he calls to 'live' the
unencounter(s) of his work, transporting the visitor to the sensations
produced by the return home of an immigrant or a call to prayer in one

2. of the most universal language, morse code.
The exhibition in the Sabrina Amrani Art Gallery opens with the installa-
tion 'Social Landscape', a declaration of intent by the work of
Ali-Baba. The piece was developed from plastic birds made in China
and purchased by the artist himself in a bazaar in Istanbul. Following a
similar path to these Chinese toys, many young North Africans dream
repeatedly of flying to the old Europe in search of 'El Dorado'. Howe-
ver, as explained by Baba-Ali, the dream can be so empty and illusory
as the interior of these birds, produced mechanically.
The disagreements and contradictions of the migration process are
also shown in the installations 'Ending your life under the sun' and
'Parabole' (Parabolic dish). In the first, Baba-Ali shows the other side
of the migration process: that of Western retirees looking to spend
their retirement years in the sunny southern countries of Europe and
North Africa, like Spain, Morocco or Tunisia. Therefore, the piece
consists of a coffin that hides inside a UV machine. Meanwhile, the
piece ‘Parabole’ offers the opposite vision of migration: a satellite
dish, always present in the homes of many immigrant communities,
searching for a signal that connects the individual to his home ...
without success.
Sound, one of the hallmarks of the work of Baba-Ali, enters the scene
with 'Call for Prayer': a megaphone called to prayer five times a day
at the exact time at which the muezzins start singing every day. This is
a sound that few westerners are oblivious, but not understand the
meaning of what they hear. In this installation, the artist offers his
version in Morse code ... will it break the language barrier?
The trip proposed by Baba-Ali ends with a return home, often as
difficult and contradictory that the entry into a foreign country. 'Untit-
led (Landspace)' shows a landscape filled with garbage bags. It is
one of the images they receive the expatriate who returns to many
countries of North Africa and Middle East: the non-biodegradable
plastic bags that are not collected in the bustle of the souks and,
abandoned, are dragged by the wind ending up hooked on trees.

3. About Younes Baba-Ali
Born in 1986 in Oujda, Morocco, Younes Baba-Ali lives from an early
age in France, but now lives and works in Brussels. After graduating
from the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg in 2008, has partici-
pated in several international exhibitions and biennials.
Among them, the Biennale of Marrakech 'AIM', the Biennale Skopje
BJCEM, Macedonia, Sketch Gallery, London; "FIAV 09", Catania, Sicily,
"Brick & Mortar International Video Art Festival", Greenfield, United
States; Espacio Menos Uno, Madrid, Loop Video Art Festival, Barcelo-
na; Interference, Breda; CEAAC, Strasbourg, In-Sonora Sound Art
Festival, Madrid and La Galerie du Syndicat Potentiel, Strasbourg.
'Ending your life under the sun' is a piece kindly sponsored by
Ataudes Gallego (http://www.ataudesgallego.com/)
PRESS OPEN DAY PUBLIC VERNISSAGE
Tuesday, January 10th Wednesday, January 11th
Calle Madera, 23 Calle Madera, 23
Open Day - 11.00 to 20.00 hours 20:00 hours
For more information:
Cuca Guixeras Press Office Galería Sabrina Amrani
00 34 91 781 10 30 00 34 627 539 884
miguel@cucaguixeras.com sabrina@sabrinaamrani.com
juantxo@cucaguixeras.com jal@sabrinaamrani.com
Madera 23. 28004 Madrid, Spain
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