Who is Rosa Barba?

Rosa Barba is a visual artist and filmmaker. She studied Theater and Film Studies in Erlangen before continuing her education at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. After receiving a fellowship at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam she finished her doctoral studies at Malmö Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts, Lund University in 2018.

What characterizes Barba's artistic practice?

Rosa Barba engages with the medium of film from a sculptural perspective. She contemplates the sculptural materiality of the filmic machine in an age where digital means of recording and storing video have proliferated. Barba redirects the spectator's gaze onto the cinematic projector itself as a nexus which is firmly anchored in reality.

An installation in a gallery with a large screen with colorful shapes projected onto it, and a small table in front of the screen with an abstract sculpture on it.
Rosa Barba, Solar Flux Recordings, 2022. Steel table, color glass plates, 35 mm film, projector, looper. Duration: 11 min. 130 x 100 x 55 cm (sculpture). Courtesy of the artist and Esther Schipper Gallery, Köln.

Through the blending of films, sculptures, installations, live performances and other media, Barba builds upon the expanded cinema practices of the 1970s. Barba meditates on natural landscapes and man-made interventions grafted onto the environment, exploring the relationship that binds historical record, personal anecdote, and filmic representation to fashion spaces of memory and uncertainty.

A group of figures in colorful ponchos huddled together in a dusty and rocky landscape.
​Rosa Barba, Aggregate States of Matters (still), 2019. 35mm film, color, optical sound, 18:00 minutes. © Rosa Barba.

Where have Barba's works been exhibited?

Rosa Barba's films and sculptural installations have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world: Tate Modern, London (2010); Kunstverein Braunschweig (2011); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2012); MIT Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (2015); Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2017); Cukrarna, Ljubljana (2021, 2022); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2024).

Her works have also been included in the collections of the following museums: the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; MAXXI, Rome; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Philadelphia Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

An empty corner of a gallery with two film projectors on the floor, with their large shadows cast onto the walls.
Rosa Barba, Western Round Table (2007). 2 x 16mm projector, 2 x 16mm film loop, optical sound. 2 min. © Rosa Barba. Exhibition view: Lux at Zoo, London.

What awards and recognitions has Barba received?

Barba's work has been decorated with the following awards and prizes: the Calder Prize (2020); the 46th PIAC, International Prize for Contemporary Art, of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco (2015); Premio ACACIA, Milan (2012); HAP Grieshaber Prize (2007); Kunstpreis Berlin, Akademie der Künste (2006); Hermann Claasen Prize (2001).

What projects is Barba involved in?

Rosa Barba has been actively involved in a number of international residencies over the past two decades. These have included: a two-year residency program at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (2003-2004); Production-in-Residence program, Baltic Arts Center Visby (2006); Villa Aurora, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles (2006); IASPIS Stockholm (2007-2008); the Artists-in-Residence-Programme of Chinati Foundation, Marfa (2013).

Barba has also participated in the following residency programs: Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center EMPAC at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy (2014-15); Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco and Denniston Hill, Glen Wild (2017); Guest Artist programme of Arts at CERN, Geneva and Atelier Calder, Saché (2021); Callie’s, Berlin (2022); Schaufler Residency @TU Dresden (2023).

Where can I find more information about Barba?

Rosa Barba has a presence through her site and on Instagram. She is represented by Esther Schipper Gallery in Köln.

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