BIOGRAPHY

Independent curator, writer, researcher and performance artist

Works in Brussels, Belgium.

holds an MA in Medieval History from the Sorbonne University. She co-funded and is currently the curator of aria (artist residency in algiers).

She previously worked at the Delfina Foundation and Art Dubai Projects. Reggad is the co-curator with Sam Bardaouil et Till Fellrath of the French Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale.

Her research and projects focus on the politics of futurity, investigates alternative systems of knowledge and artistic modes of production, and explores performative methodologies inspired by dance and performance notations.

As a curator, Reggad has conceived exhibitions, screenings, performances, educational programmes and talks at international institutions such as CENTQUATREPARIS (France), Tate Modern (UK), Institute of Contemporary Arts (UK), Madrassa - l’Atelier de l’observatoire (Morocco), and DJART Biennial (Algeria), and she regularly contributes essays on contemporary art and performance art.

As a performance artist, Reggad has recently staged the first two episodes of her project 'we dreamt of utopia and we woke up screaming' at KANAL - Centre Pompidou (Belgium), Kaaistudio’s (Belgium), Jeu de Paume (France), Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture (Spain) and the Warsaw Biennale (Poland). She is a Fellow 2019-2020 of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program.

Yasmina Reggad also works as a dramaturge and has collaborated with choreographer Ioanna Angelopoulou, dancer-choreographer Trajal Harrell. She currently works with performance artists Myriam Pruvot and Carlos Azeredo Mesquita.

CONTACT

yasmina(at)yasminareggad.co.uk

EMPLOYMENT

Curator at aria (artist residency in algiers), Algiers/Algeria, since 2012

Guest-curator at Art Dubai Projects, Dubai/UAE, 2016-2017

Exhibitions and projects manager at Delfina Foundation, London/UK, 2013-2015

Founding director and curator at Photo-Festivals, 2008-2013

EDUCATION

Post-graduate Diploma Editorial Projects (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
MA Medieval History (La Sorbonne, Paris I)
B.A. History (La Sorbonne, Paris I)

Fluent in French, English, Spanish and Portuguese

RECENT CURATORIAL PROJECTS

Zineb Sedira
solo presentation by Zineb Sedira
co-curated with Sam Bardaouil et Till Fellrath
French Pavilion, 59th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia (Venice, Italy), April-November 2022

CATASTROPHICALLY GORGEOUS
solo show by artist duo :mentalKLINIK
Eugster || Belgrade (Belgrade, Serbia), September-December 2018

L'Horizon des événements
solo show by Abdelkader Benchamma
Le CENTQUATRE-PARIS (Paris, France), March-May 2018

MADRASSA 2017
Curator of the curriculum of the training programme in curatorial research and practices in contemporary art for emerging practitioners in the MENA region. With interventions by Sumesh Sharma, Amanda Abi Khalil, Berit Schuck and Noura Al Khasawneh, Azar Mahmoudian, Nadine Atallah, Léa Morin and Mohamed Fariji, Ahmet Ögüt, Yasmina Reggad.
l'Atelier de l’Observatoire (Casablanca, Morocco), September 2017

Good Printing
group show with works by Aisha Khalid, :mentalKLINIK, Hassan Sharif, Haleh Redjaian, Eglé Budvytyté, Rania Bellou, Sreshta Rit Premnath, Pauline Bastard, William Engelen and Ilan Manouach.
Isabelle van den Eynde Gallery (Dubai, UAE), May 2017

Art Dubai Commissions 2017
newly commissioned performances by Iván Argote & Pauline Pastard (A Walk for Two and Born to Collect), Manuel Pelmus (Private Collection), Lana Fahmi (What Modernity?) and Eglé Budvytyté (Soft Voice, Harsh Melody).
Art Dubai (Dubai, UAE), March 2017

The Unbearable Likeness
solo show by Abdelkader Benchamma
Isabelle van den Eynde Gallery (Dubai, UAE), March-April 2016

Art Dubai Commissions 2016
newly commissioned works by artists Massinissa Selmani (On y voit mieux), Nile Sunset Annex (70 Artists Toasts), Doa Ali ('free radicals') and Sreshta Rit Premnath (PLOT (Recto/Verso)).
Art Dubai (Dubai, UAE), March 2016

AiR Dubai 2016
2-month residency culminating with a curated public programme and the commissioning of new site specific works by Areej Kaoud (The Artist Hard at Work and Brigade d'urgence), Moza Almatrooshi (Markings I), Lydia Ourahmane (FREE WIFI), and Jumairy (The Sleepless Pe-Tal and An Introvert's Dream Party).
Tashkeel Studios, A4 and Art Dubai (Dubai, UAE), January-March 2016

Performance as Process residency programme at Delfina Foundation
series of evening performances.
Delfina Foundation (London, UK), January-March 2015

*The Mentalist
commissioned and existing performances by Bona Park, Jean-Paul Kelly, Oscar Santillan, Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Young In Hong and Alvaro Ugarte.

*Repeat/Rehearse
commissioned, existing, re-imagined and re-located performances by Adrian Lee, Lydia Ourahmane, Bona Park, Jean-Paul Kelly, Oscar Santillan, Alex Baczynski-Jenkins and Alvaro Ugarte.

*The Centre For Dying on Stage #2
commissioned promenade/reading by curator Kate Strain

Puppetmaster and Please Pay Attention for Your Comfort and Safety
commissioned performances by Adrian Lee
DJART Biennial (Algiers, Algeria), November 2014

Djazaïr
one-day screening of artists’ film, performance and discussion by artists Mathieu K. Abonnenc, Fayçal Baghriche, Neïl Beloufa, Stéphane Couturier, Katia Kameli, Lydia Ourahmane and Zineb Sedira, and historian. Co-curated with Ali MacGilp
John Jones Project Space (London, UK), October 2014

RECENT TALKS & WORKSHOPS

Intergenerational (Hi)stories
Panel discussion
with Zeynep Kubat and Zineb Sedira
part of UNCERTAINTY online festival Fotomuseum Antwerpen - FOMU / Trigger Magazine, Dec. 2020

L'Art de l'Écoute
Podcast (2h, in French)
Radio  Grenouille (Marseille, France): interview and listening session produced by Chloé Despax, Nov. 2020

Performance and Visual Arts in Trajal Harrell’s work
Video-Conference
Schauspielhaus Zürich, Zurich/Switzerland, Sept. 2020

Listening Solidarities
Seminar
part of Re–Directing: East international curatorial residency programme
Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw/Poland, June 2019

Landmarks of Solidarity II: 'Mecca of Revolutionaries: Algiers and its Global Reverberations'
panel discussion
part of the symposium Axis of Solidarity: Landmarks | Platforms | Futures, conceived by Dr Salah Hassan, co-organised by Cornell University and Tate Modern
Tate Modern (London, UK), Feb. 2019

Revolting Senses
In conversation with Dr Joachim Ben Yakoub
Naar Pavilion public programme curated by Amel Ben Attia for Jaou Tunis 2018
Le15 (Tunis, Tunisia), June 2018

Working on the margins
Keynotes speaker
A program by bkkc in collaboration with Ron Dirven, director Van Gogh huis and Heidi Vogels, coordinator AiR Platform NL, DutchCulture
bkkc (Tilburg, The Netherlands), March 2018

Very slowly turn whatever you are doing any time into its opposite: workouts to understand performance art #2
2-day workshop followed by a performance by participants. Part of Madrassa 2017
l'Atelier de l’Observatoire (Casablanca, Morocco), Sept. 2017

In conversation with Massinissa Selmani
part of 'Reactivating our Collective Utopias and Past Narratives', research seminar conceived by Léa Morin
Bétonsalon - Centre d’art et de recherche (Paris, France), June 2017

A.i.R Dubai public programme
series of public events with A.i.R Dubai resident artists discussing Performance Art, Land Art and artistic processes.
Tashkeel Studios and A4 Alserkal Avenue (Dubai, UAE), Feb.-March 2016

Venice Agendas: The Right to Fail
panel discussion, part of a series of talks and performances, curated by Venice Agendas with Waugh Office
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK), Nov. 2015

Very slowly turn whatever you are doing any time into its opposite: workouts to understand performance art #1
2-day workshop followed by a performance by participants. Part of Madrassa 2015
l'Atelier de l’Observatoire (Casablanca, Morocco), Sept. 2015

In Conversation with Kapwani Kiwanga
Tiwani Gallery (London, UK), April 2015

RESEARCH

We dreamt of utopia and we woke up screaming. 'On Air'
Research on the archive of the Radiodiffusion television algérienne that hosted the radio programmes of the movements of liberation in the 60s and 70s.
Guests: Tirdad Zolghadr, Malika Laïchour Romane and Salah Badis.
Developped as part of Kibrit international research platform.
Algiers, Algeria, July 2017-January 2018

We can’t be There. Emergency Provisions for (Un)Anticipated Futures
6-month series of public events curated in collaboration with Dr. Michael Guggenheim and Dr. Rebecca Coleman (Sociology Department of Goldsmiths, University of London).
Supported by the European Research Council Starting Grant
London, UK, January-June 2015

*Acting in the Future
workshop lead by artists Iván Argote and Mikhail Karikis.
Tate Modern (London, UK), June 2015

*We Can’t Be There
seminar incl. lectures by Rebecca Coleman, Bernd Kraftner and Michael Guggenheim, and a demonstration by Natascha Sadr Haghighian, chaired by Yasmina Reggad
Tate Modern (London, UK), June 2015

*How Do You Want To Eat If it Happens
performative dinner in response to a call for disaster scenarios, in collaboration with artists Daniel Salomon and the Center for Genomic Gastronomy, and curator Maki Nishida.
Delfina Foundation (London, UK), April 2015

*ICA Artists’ Film Club
screenings of artists’ films by Mikhail Karikis (Children of Unquiet, 2013-4), Iván Argote (La estrategia, 2012), and Deniz Üster (Beyond is Before, 2013) followed by conversations with academics, writers and cultural commentators (incl. Oreet Ashery, Benjamin Kunkel, Matthew de Albatua, Nerea Calvillo, David Oswell and Alberto Toscano).
Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, UK), January-June 2015

Austerity Futures? Imagining and Materialising the Future in an ‘Age of Austerity’
Independent researcher in the programme of events that examines whether the current ‘age of austerity’ in the UK, Europe and some other parts of the developed Western world, changes the ways in which the future is imagined, planned for, worked towards and brought into being. The series of seminars, workshops and conference brought together leading researchers from the UK, America, Canada, Australia and Europe with those working on methodologies for mapping the future in the public, private and third sectors.
Funded by the Economic and Social Science Research Council and organised by a group of academics based at Lancaster, York, Durham and Goldsmiths Universities where the events took place between 2012 and 2014.

RECENT ESSAYS

‘It's my yard. You can dance if you want to.’
in Dancer of the Year catalogue of choreographer and dancer Trajal Harrell, Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, Belgium), 2019

When the Dates Turn Red
in When the Dates Turn Red exhibition catalogue of artist Hoda Tawakol, Isabelle van den Eynde Gallery (Dubai, UAE), 2018

If... Then... Else...
in Lorenzo Sandoval, Shadow Writing (Algorithm/Quipu), Archive Books (Berlin, Germany), 2018

Extraction
in What Remains in Future exhibition catalogue of artist David Bergé presenting choreographer Marc Vanrunxt at kunstencentrum STUK (Leuven, Belgium), 2017

Zeft on Canvas
in Zeft, exhibition catalogue of artist Hani Zurob, Contempory Art Platform, (Kuweit), 2017

The Artist Hard at Work
editor of the artist's book (inc. DVD and online sound archive) in collaboration with artist Areej Kaoud, self-published, 2016

The Unbearable Likeness
in The Unbearable Likeness exhibition catalogue of artist Abdelkader Benchamma, Isabelle van den Eynde Gallery (Dubai, UAE), 2016

Why the remote is always so far away essay commissioned for artist Hans Rosenström’s solo exhibition at Maria Stenfors (London, UK), 2015

Paralysis
commissioned essay for artist Lydia Ourahmane’s solo exhibition at Ellis King Gallery (Dublin, Ireland), 2015

A port is a delightful place of rest for a soul weary of life's battles
in Sands of Time exhibition catalogue of artist Zineb Sedira, The Third Line Gallery (Dubai, UAE), 2015

Against All Odds
in 'Pas de deux: Mediterranean Dialogues', ed. Alya Sebti and Angelika Stepken, Villa Romana (Florence, Italy), 2014

There isn’t just one Casbah, there are a hundred, a thousand!
essay commissioned by aria (artist residency in algiers) for artist Amina Menia newly commissioned work for 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair (London, UK), 2013

The Economy of Hope
essay on art works by artists Amina Menia and Mohammed Bourouissa, commissioned by Alya Sebti for ArteEast (New York, USA), 2013

Travelling in imaginative Geographies
in Realism in Rawiya: Photographic Stories from the Middle East exhibition catalogue of Rawiya Collective, New Art Exchange (Nottingham, UK), 2013

AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES

Grants
The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, 2018; Centre National des Arts Plastiques, 2018; Institut Français d’Alger, 2016; Arts Council England, 2009 and 2011; Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs (European Commission), 2010.

PERFORMANCE

we dreamt of utopia and we woke up screaming (2016-2020)
Two performative works form the first two episodes of this radiophonic series. A broadcasting company at times, and a foreign broadcast monitoring centre at others, they explore new ways of exhibiting and activating a unique and little-known archive of a time when Algiers was dubbed the ‘Mecca of Revolution’.

*Episode 1. La radio des images qui s’écoutent
Performance /For documentation & booking please contact Hiros/
Les rencontres à l’échelle Festival / Mucem Museum (Marseille, France), August 2021; KANAL - Centre Pompidou (Brussels, Belgium), January 2021; Kaaistudio’s - Moussem Cities Algiers (Brussels, Belgium), 2020; Jeu de Paume (Paris, France), 2019 ;Biennale Warszawa (Warsaw, Poland), 2019; Le Space (Brussels, Belgium), 2019; Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, Germany), 2018 ; Bétonsalon - Centre d’art et de recherche (Paris, France), 2017; L’atelier de l’observatoire, (Casablanca, Morocco), 2016

*Episode 2. From Dreamers to Freedom Fighters to Terrorists
Performative sound installation /For documentation & booking please contact Hiros/
Les rencontres à l’échelle Festival - Mucem Museum (Marseille, France), 2021; Kaaistudio’s (Brussels, Belgium), 2020

*Friends, companions, comrades…
performative installation /For documentation & booking please contact Hiros/
in On fail[l]ed tales and ta[y]lors, a group exhibition curated by Madrassa Collective.
Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture (San Sebastián, Spain), Nov. 2019-Feb. 2020

she refused to be what she was told she was
Site-specific performance that activates Bulk Targets 1-100 (2017), 100 works on cardboard by Navine G. Khan-Dossos. The performance is titled after the last words of Lisa Downing’s essay 'Shoot The Women First. A Reflection on the Gender Politics of Targeting' (2018) specially commissioned by the artist for her exhibition Shoot the Woman First at The Breeder Gallery.
(Choreography & research: Yasmina Reggad; Yi Quan mouvements: Paola-Rebecca Drea; Costume: first studies for Bulk Targets 1-100 (2017) by Navine G. Khan-Dossos; performed by dancers Ioanna Angelopoulou, Marilina Besi, Paola-Rebecca Drea, Veatriki Kapnisi, Dafni Krazoudi, Marina Miliou-Theocharaki, Elton Petri, Alexandra Tsotanidou and Valentini-Eleni Vekkini; Photography: Alexandra Masmanidi)
/Photo documentation available upon request/
The Breeder Gallery (Athens, Greece), Feb. 2018


On the Palestinian Cause and Western Sahara Question
Sound intervention performed from Algiers via skype for listeners in Marrakech; conceived with the collaboration of Salah Badis (Voices: Yasmina Reggad, Salah Badis and Ali MacGilp; Archival sound recordings: extracts from the sound archives of the Radio algérienne; Facebook status by Iraqi writer Saadi Yousef)
/Documentation upon request (recording in French)/
part of 'Kibrit: Reactivating collective histories, shares spaces and common places'
Algiers/Le 18 (Marrakech, Morocco), Dec. 2017


IF–THEN GOTO
dance performance and score (archival research and score: Yasmina Reggad; performed by: Yasmina Reggad and Lana Fahmi), a Tribute to artist Hassan Sharif
/Photo documentation available upon request/
Isabelle van den Eynde Gallery/ The Estate of Hassan Sharif, Art Dubai 2017 (Dubai/UAE), March 2017


Postcard from the Future: the Year 1000
Dance performance (performed by: Yasmina Reggad and Lana Fahmi), in collaboration with Lana Fahmi and Alaa Krimed
part of Global Art Forum 10: 'The Future Was', Art Dubai (Dubai/UAE), March 2016


Networks and Circulations of Agency in the Techno-Diaspora
Lecture-performance (performed by: Yasmina Reggad)
/Video documentation available upon request/
part of 'Mirage, 20 Years On' Symposium, ICA (London/UK), Nov. 2015


Repeat/Rehearse: a Case Study
Lecture performance (performed by: Yasmina Reggad)
/Photo documentation available upon request/
SINNE - HIAP /Frame Visual Art Finland (Helsinki, Finland), August 2015

DRAMATURGY

Über Alles by Carlos Azevedo Mesquita
Teatro Municipal do Porto (Porto, Portugal) 2021

Dancer of the Year Shop by Trajal Harrel
Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, Belgium), May 2019

Effigies by Ioanna Angelopoulou
Artiria (Athens, Greece), May 2019