Ito Barrada will represent France at the 2026 Venice Biennale.

Ito Barrada, a French-Moroccan artist with a strong international profile, has been chosen to represent France at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. The selection jury is chaired by Claire Le Restif, director of the Center d’Ivry for Contemporary Art. – Le Crédac, outside Paris, chose Barrada because of “her multidisciplinary practice that brings together different artistic and social communities in search of a new utopia.”

The choice of the selection committee was supported by the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrault and the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati. The statement came against the backdrop of strengthening diplomatic relations between France and Morocco.

Barrada was born in 1971 in Paris and lives and works between New York and Tangier. She studied history and political science at the Sorbonne and photography at the International Center of Photography in New York. The French Institute, which runs the national pavilion, said in a statement that “for a quarter of a century she has developed an interdisciplinary practice—installation, film, photography, sculpture and textiles—that addresses issues as diverse as international human trafficking. Dinosaur Fossils, Colonial Anthropology, Pan-Africanism, and Cultural Politics during the Cold War.”

Barrada has been the subject of monographic exhibitions, especially in Europe and the United States, including exhibitions at the Jeu de Paume in Paris (2006), the Renaissance Society in Chicago (2011) and the Tate Modern in London (2011). She was also nominated for the 2016 Marcel Duchamp Prize, France’s most important prize for contemporary art. Barrada is represented by Polaris Gallery in Paris, Sfeir-Semler in Beirut and Hamburg and Pace in London.