showcase TRUE TO THE T Two metal palm trees on wooden wagons are displayed in the Louis Vuitton store in Casablanca’s Morocco Mall. Myrna Ayad meets Yto Barrada and her Twin Palm Island installation, commissioned by the luxury brand. heir location along the Mediter- dustry has reaped and what damage urbanisation Facing page: Yto Barrada. (Detail) Twin Palm Island. 2012. Two trees: ranean bestows upon Levantine has brought about. metal and bulbs; Two wagons: wood, paint and rubber wheels. Tree heights, and North African countries fertile lands with In a clever play on aesthetics and symbolism, 180 cm and 250 cm, respectively. a plethora of lush vegetation. Each country is Barrada created Twin Palm Island, an installation Width of trees: approximately 140 cm; Height of wagons: approximately 25 renowned for its botanical riches, most of which commissioned by Louis Vuitton for the luxury cm. Width of wagons: approximately 130 cm. Image courtesy Louis Vuitton. have biblical references and with some tracing brand’s store in Casablanca’s Morocco Mall. It marks back to prehistoric Egypt – Lebanon’s cedars; the the House’s first art collaboration in Morocco, fol- olive trees of Syria and Palestine; and across the lowing projects with Farhad Moshiri, Nadim Karam between botany and urban development. Her Sahara, the palm tree. In Morocco alone, there are and Shadia and Raja Alem in Dubai. It should be oeuvre has seen her create ‘serious toys’ – artworks some five hundred varieties of palm trees, some noted that the relationship with art and luxury which take on a physical playful demeanour but of which can live up to 150 years. The tree’s pro- has been an inherent component of the Louis which address critical issues. visions are many, and extend beyond economic Vuitton philosophy since the brand’s inception in Two metal date palms, dotted with colourful export or income for locals – for one, their roots 1854. James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson and Takashi Mu- incandescent light-bulbs, sit on two red wooden prevent soil erosion in a climate as harsh as Mo- rakami are just some of the art world’s celebrated wagons in the Louis Vuitton store window. Barrada rocco’s. And aesthetically, a drive through or walk figures who have collaborated with the House; acknowledges that Twin Palm Island is window along the wide boulevards lined with robust palm not to mention the establishment of the Fonda- display art, a tradition that she approves of. They trees in any Moroccan city, is breathtaking. The tion Louis Vuitton pour la Création, which stages are two to suggest a sequence, echoing Morocco’s trees stand tall, proud, and embody a spirit of re- exhibitions of 20th- and 21st-century art. It was boulevards lined with palm trees; they are differ- silience; they also encapsulate an ingredient of a commission that Barrada was all too happy to ently sized to emulate the way in which they are age-old Moroccan identity. For Tangier-based Yto take on. She credits the House’s professional team, realistically planted and ‘criminally’ trimmed; they Barrada, these boulevards are emblematic of Po- who had been following her works and news – feature rare, luminous light-bulbs, of which some temkin villages – a phrase which takes its name her 2011 Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year Award don’t glow, to suggest the hazards of urbanisation from a myth involving Russian minister Grigory and subsequent exhibition at the Berlin Guggen- vis-à-vis the Moroccan landscape; and they sit on Potemkin, who had faux villages set up to impress heim, as well as her works in major public and wagons to insinuate mobility – where are the Catherine II, of Russia’s conquests during the mon- private collections worldwide. That this new work trees going and why are they being moved in the arch’s inspection following the Crimean War. And – a continuation of a multimedia trajectory that first place? And yet, for all its powerful metaphors, in Morocco, state visits include a drive around the addresses themes of hope, identity, landscape, Twin Palm Island is a happy installation but also cities, where, like armed guards, the date palms tradition and progress – is located in a commercial one that calls to question: just who reigns over the shield the destitution behind their very trunks. The “contradictive” space, is an intellectual, yet playful Moroccan date palms and what benefits do the trees hide what lies behind – what the blaze of in- nod to one of Barrada’s passions: the collision decision-makers attain? 174 showcase TREE 175
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