In this interactive dance performance, The Waterproofed Artist, Youness Atbane casts a skeptical eye on the power dynamics that permeate the global art scene.
The scene takes place in 2048, during the 72nd edition of the famous Venice Biennale. As always, there are pavilions for each participating country – vying for cultural hegemony, or trying to redefine themselves in a more contemporary way. This year, a newly inaugurated pavilion brings together the whole global south; spotlighting the MENA region’s most influential creative minds. Festivities are brought to a crashing halt when, as climatologists had long predicted, the city of Venice begins to sink. It is only once the artists find themselves and their artworks floating above the surface of the water that the real process of criticism begins…
Younes Atbane lives and works between Casablanca and Berlin. His work focuses on the critical relationship between art, its actors and its geopolitics. Atbane’s practise comprises three interconnected areas: live performance as a space of reflection, installation-making as an outcome of the performance act, and photography and drawing as an archive. He has exhibited his installations and performed at venues across the world including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, the parallel project in the 2011 Venice Biennale, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the British Museum.
