Like a lot of her tasks, “108 Days” pertains to the artist’s instant environment and engages with the social, political and experiential, whereas being invariably rooted in private histories and experiences, whether or not particular person or collective.

The installations, movies, sculptures and sound works of Lydia Ourahmane tackle modern points equivalent to migration, colonialism and geopolitics. Inhabiting, gathering, sharing, being permeable…, these are all qualities that infuse the site-specific mission “108 Days” by Lydia Ourahmane (Saïda, Algeria, 1992) within the Museum tower. The title refers each to the days the exhibition is open to the general public and to the variety of contributors who’ve been invited by the artist to interact with the house throughout this era. 

“108 Days” carries an prolonged metropolis context into the Museum by foregrounding people or collectives who kind a part of its social panorama. These company have been particularly chosen by Ourahmane, who has lived in Barcelona since 2021. The house just isn’t occupied by any completed art work, or objects, however by what every participant deems pressing and incisive, with the intention of selling crucial dialogue and alternate with the house, the institutional framework and whoever enters and spends time in it. With this work, the artist presents a big alteration to the best way the Museum usually operates, firstly by leaving this gallery house empty, other than these parts vital for the efficiency of any foreseeable activity, and secondly by deciphering the Museum’s fee to provide an art work by inviting 108 contributors. The belief between the artist, the establishment, the company and the viewers is what lends significance to the work. 

Ourahmane’s praxis poses the next questions: How can the institutional buildings and parameters that outline modern societies be defied? How can vigilance and the impositions of paperwork be overturned? How can artworks contain lively and efficient protests? By these inquiries Ourahmane brings the non-public into the political subject and the home into the sphere of historical past. 

Curated by
Guim Camps and Hiuwai Chu

at MACBA—Museu d’Artwork Contemporani de Barcelona
till April 1, 2024