23 Apr 2011

Younes Baba-Ali at ArteContemporanea Brussels

A parabolic antenna installed within the gallery bumps in vain into the wall. Switching on/off unpredictably, seven hairdryers panic: the air released by one makes the next swinging. The leads of three ball pens appear and disappear, as they are compulsively pressed by tireless, clenched hands. At regular intervals, a megaphone broadcasts a mysterious code, while a TV screen turned towards the wall stubbornly releases the blurred sound of a missing channel. Here and there, tools of our technological, networked and overconnected everyday life cacophonously switch on and off and answer to each other.

As the first solo show by Younes Baba-Ali, No signal found gets on one's nerve. Irritated and mistreated, our patience gets blunt because nothing works; or, at any rate, nothing works the right way, and the pirated objects seem to have got rid of the yoke of functionality. Affected by a 'Frankenstein syndrome', they bug and defy us. The mocking artist might almost be seen behind the corner, ironically watching our sheepish wandering within a freewheeling and absurd universe that alludes to real fears, such as the year 2000 bug.

By implicitly approaching urgent issues such as the effects of the 'Society of the Spectacle', and the question of multicultural identities and religious clashes, the exhibition appropriates and interrogates the features and the tools of our ultra-contemporaneous, globalised and rhizome-like society. In between amusement and consternation, we are submitted a show about artificial…intelligence.


Younes Baba-Ali is a French/Moroccan artist who lives and works between Marseille and Casablanca. Baba-Ali is a multidisciplinary artist. Even though his work often deals with the multimedia and new technologies, his practice goes over categorisations' endeavours. Baba-Ali graduated from L'Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg in 2008 and is currently reading the final year of an MFA in Art Practice at L'Ecole Supérieure d'Art in Aix-en-Provence. He has exhibited throughout the world, namely at BJCEM Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean (Skopje), at AIM Biennial (Marrakech), Sketch Gallery (London), International New Media Art Biennial WRO 09 (Wroclaw), Loop Video Art Festival (Barcelona), In-Sonora Sound Art Festival (Madrid) and l'Appartement 22 (Rabat).

Bérénice Saliou is an independent curator living in Marseille (France). She holds a MFA in Curating from the Goldsmiths College in London and is currently developing art projects in France and abroad. Particularly involved in Morocco, she regularly collaborates with specialised magazines such as Universes in Universe, Arte Contexto or Catalogue Magazine.