Mona Hatoum exhibits in Doha

Associated media

'Mona Hatoum: Turbulence'

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art

Until 18 May 2014

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha is currently showing ‘Mona Hatoum: Turbulence’, the artist’s largest solo exhibition to date in the Arab world. Curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath of Art Reoriented, the exhibition explores the diversity of Hatoum’s work over the last 30 years.  The exhibition’s premise has evolved from a key new work: Turbulence (2012), a four-by-four-metre square composed of thousands of glass marbles laid directly onto the floor. Placed exactly at the centre of Mathaf’s exhibition space, this installation lies at the heart of a linear but non-chronological presentation of works whereby a number of unexpected juxtapositions echo the complexity through which the artist has managed to challenge, and at times disturb, our experience of the ordinary.

The Chairperson of Qatar Museums Authority, HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani has said about Mona Hatoum’s exhibition: Qatar Museums Authority is proud to feature one such iconic artist at Mathaf and to provide this opportunity for audiences in Doha to encounter Hatoum’s diverse and challenging body of artworks produced over the last three decades.

‘Mona Hatoum: Turbulence’consists of more than 70 works ranging from large-scale room installations such as Light Sentence (1992) and Suspended (2011) to smaller works on paper and sculptural objects such as Projection (2006), and Untitled (wheelchair II) (1999) respectively. It also includes some of the artist’s kinetic installations such as + and – (1994–2004) and Home (1999). The exhibition is punctuated with a number of the artist’s photographs, including Van Gogh’s Back (1995) and Static Portraits (Momo, Devrim, Karl) (2000), as well as documentations of early performances such as The Negotiating Table (1983) and Roadworks (1985), highlighting the diversity of artistic undertakings that span the artist’s prolific three-decade career.

Abdellah Karroum, Mathaf’s Director, has said:

Mona Hatoum is one of the most influential artists of her generation. Few living artists have developed a conscious and engaged artistic vocabulary that inspires new generations of artists, art historians, and art audiences. Mona Hatoum is one of those artists. She is an artist with whom I have had the pleasure to work in the past. With this exhibition, Mathaf recognizes the centrality of Mona Hatoum’s art to the history of 20th and 21st century.

About Mona Hatoum

Mona Hatoum was born into a Palestinian family in Beirut in 1952 and now lives and works in London and Berlin. She has participated in numerous significant exhibitions including the Turner Prize (1995), The Venice Biennale (1995 and 2005), Istanbul Biennial (1995 and 2011), Cairo Biennale (1998), and the Biennale of Sydney (2006). Solo exhibitions include Centre Pompidou, Paris (1994), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1997), MoMA, Oxford, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (1998), Tate Britain, London (2000) Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Magasin 3, Stockholm (2004), Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2005) and Palazzo Querini Stampalia in the context of the Venice Biennale (2009).Recent exhibitions include, ‘Witness’, Beirut Art Center, Beirut (2010), ‘Le Grand Monde’, Fundaciòn Marcelino Botìn, Santander (2010), Sammlung Goetz, Munich (2011), ‘You Are Still Here’, Arter, Istanbul (2012), ‘Projection’, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (2012) and Kunstmuseum St Gallen (2013).