Yto Barrada's 'Le Grand Soir' at MoMA PS1 juxtaposes playful interaction with the museum's historical weight. Opening on a day of sunlight and shadows, the installation comprises 97 concrete cubes in pyramidal formations, alluding to both Moroccan culture and acrobatic acts. The cubes, numbered with Arabic titles, are designed to invite playful exploration while critiquing the architectural legacy of the site, previously a school devoid of play areas, in an act of subtle rebellion against traditional institutional authority.
"I think this is the only sculpture to be approved by the city's playground safety commission," she said with a smile before discreetly puffing on a cigarette.
On its surface, Barrada's installation seems to rectify this history-yet it's charged with subversive political intent: The pleasantly colored cubes that will occupy the museum entrance's breezeway into 2026 are actually a way of infusing a cheeky sense of anarchy into the building's imperial authority.
Le Grand Soir consists of 97 concrete cubes, each weighing approximately one ton, stacked in three pyramidal structures. Rendered in a palette that references Moroccan motifs...
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