Artists
Mounir Fatmi1970-
Mounir Fatmi1970-
mounir fatmi was born in Tangiers, Morocco, in 1970. When he was four, his family moved to Casablanca. At the age of 17, he traveled to Rome where he studied at the free school of nude drawing and engraving at the Academy of Arts, and then at the Casablanca art school, and finally at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.
He spent most of his childhood at the flea market of Casabarata, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Tangiers, where his mother sold children's clothes. Such an environment produces vast amounts of waste and worn-out common use objects. The artist now considers this childhood to have been his first form of artistic education, and compares the flea market to a museum in ruin. This vision also serves as a metaphor and expresses the essential aspects of his work. Influenced by the idea of dead media and the collapse of the industrial and consumerist society, he develops a conception of the status of the artwork located somewhere between Archive and Archeology.
By using materials such as antenna cable, typewriters and VHS tapes, mounir fatmi elaborates an experimental archeology that questions the world and the role of the artist in a society in crisis. He twists its codes and precepts through the prism of a trinity comprising Architecture, Language and Machine. Thus, he questions the limits of memory, language and communication while reflecting upon these obsolescent materials and their uncertain future. mounir fatmi's artistic research consists in a reflection upon the history of technology and its influence on popular culture. Consequently, one can also view mounir fatmi's current works as future archives in the making. Though they represent key moments in our contemporary history, these technical materials also call into question the transmission of knowledge and the suggestive power of images and criticize the illusory mechanisms that bind us to technology and ideologies.
Since 2000, Mounir fatmi's installations were selected in several biennials, the 52nd and 57th Venice Biennales, the 8th Sharjah Biennale, the 5th and 7th Dakar Biennales, the 2nd Seville Biennale, the 5th Gwangju Biennale, the 10th Lyon Biennale, the 5th Auckland Triennial, the 10th and 11th Bamako Biennales, the 7th Shenzhen Architecture Biennale, the Setouchi Triennial and the Echigo-Tsumari Triennial in Japan. His work has been presented in numerous personal exhibits, at the Migros Museum, Zurich. MAMCO, Geneva. Picasso Museum La Guerre et la Paix, Vallauris. AK Bank Foundation, Istanbul. Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf and at the Gothenburg Konsthall. He also participated in several collective exhibits at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Brooklyn Museum, New York. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. MAXXI, Rome. Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. MMOMA, Moscow. Mathaf, Doha, Hayward Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, at Nasher Museum of Art, Durham and Louvre Abu Dhabi.
He has received several prizes, including the Uriöt prize, Amsterdam, the Grand Prix Léopold Sédar Senghor at the 7th Dakar Biennale in 2006, the Cairo Biennale Prize in 2010, as well as the Silver Plane Prize, Altai Biennale, Moscow in 2020.
- Biography
- 1970 born in Tangier, Morocco
lives and works in Paris and Tangier
1987 Scola libera del Nudo, Academy of Fine Arts, Rome
1990 School of Fine Arts, Casablanca
2006 - 2007 Rijksakademie, Amsterdam
- More
- Solo Exhibitions
- 2023 Breaking the Cycle, Baro Galerie, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
2022 The Blinding Light, Casa Arabe, Madrid
2017 Peripheral Vision, Art Front Galley, Tokyo
2016 Depth of Field, Labanque, Béthune
Darkening Process, The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts, Marrakech, Morocco
2015 History is not mine, Metavilla, Bordeaux
Permanent Exiles, MAMCO, Geneva
Art et Patrimoine: C'est encore la nuit, Prison Qara - Institut Français de Meknès, Morroco
Modern Times, Miami Beach Urban Studios Gallery - Florida International University, Miami Beach
Constructing Illusion, Analix Forever, Geneva
2014 Walking on the light, CCC - Centre de Création Contemporaine, Tours
Light & Fire, ADN Galeria, Barcelona
Art of War, ADN Platform, Sant Cugat del Vallès
They were blind, they only saw images, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
The Kissing Circles, Analix Forever, Geneva
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- Group Exhibitions
- 2023 MODERN TIMES in Paris 1925: Art and Design in the Machine-age
Dystopia: Transition form Memory, Art Front Gallery, Tokyo
2022 Setouchi Triennale 2020, Uno port Area, Kagawa / Japan
Biennale d’art contemporain Hybride 4: ouvrir, Biennale d’art contemporain Hybride, Reins, Franc
2022 5ème Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, Biennale de Casablanca, Morocco
Altai Biennale, Republic of Altai
2018 Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2018, Niigata, Japan
2017 Diaspora Now! – Contemporary Arts around the Homeland, The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Japan
57th International Venice Biennial, Italy
2016 Fundamental, 5th Mediations Biennale 2016, Poznan
Setouchi Triennale 2016, Awashima Community Area, Japan
Al-tiba9, Bardo National Museum, Algiers
Utopies, Espoirs, Colères, L'Été Photographique de Lectoure, Lectoure
Nothing but blue skies. Arles 2016 - Les Rencontres de la photographie, Arles
Expérience sonore, Musée d'Art Moderne de Troyes, Troyes
Dark Chapters, Rotor, Graz
3AJEL, Le Temps Réel, Talan, Tunis
Lady Dior As Seen By, Langen Foundation, Neuss
En garde, l’art s’engage !, Musée Bartholdi, Colmar
Le temps de l'audace et de l'engagement - De leur temps (5), Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne
Looking at the World Around You. Contemporary Works from Qatar Museums, Santander Art Gallery, Madrid
Le Sens de la Peine, La Terrasse, Nanterre
Merchant of Dreams, Brandts & Viborg Kunsthal, Odense & Viborg, Denmark
2015 I Love You, Fondazione VIDEOINSIGHT, Turin, Italy
Unprotected Zone, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel
Le monde selon..., FRAC Franche Comté , Besançon
Les Fragments de l'Amour, CAC La Traverse, Alfortville
Memory & Oblivion, Station, Beirut
Art et Prison - We only exist when we create, Contemporary Istanbul, Istanbul
Between the Pessimism of the Intellect and the Optimism of the Will, 5th Thessaloniki Biennale, Thessaloniki
The Migrant (Moving) Image, A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam
Street Culture, Ecole Municipale des Beaux-Arts de Châteauroux, Châteauroux
Tolerance, The 2nd International Bodrum Biennial, Bodrum
Créer c'est résister, Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, Lyon
Jameel Prize 3, The National Library, Singapore
Global Control and Censorship, ZKM, Karlsruhe
Je me souviens, La Traverse - centre d'art contemporain d'Alfortville, Alfortville
Seins à Dessein, Espace Arlaud, Lausanne
Who said tomorrow doesn't exist?, 1st Trio Biennial, Rio de Janeiro
A REPUBLIC OF ART, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Summertime... and the living is easy, Geukens & De Vil, Knokke-Heist
Le Point de Fuite de l'Histoire, Festival Photographique de Lectoure, Lectoure, France
Face 2 Face, Festival A-Part, Les Baux-de-Provence
Handle with Care, Ostrale '15, Dresden
Diverse works: Director's Choice, 1997-2015, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn
Jameel Prize 3, Sharjah Museum, Sharjah
Fotofest 2014: Views from the inside, ADMAF, Abu Dhabi
Passages, parages; visages, paysages, Musée Bank Al-Maghrib, Rabat
Je me souviens du génocide arménien, Galerie Sobering, Paris
Africa and its shadow, Marta Massaioli Arte Contemporanea, Fabriano
You love me, you love me not, Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto
Traces of the Future, MMP+, The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts, Marrakech
Test Exposure, 16th International Media Art Biennial WRO, Wroclaw
FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out - Sextant &+, La Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille
Detras del Muro, Collateral project to the 12th Havana Biennial, La Havana
All the World's a mosque, Théâtre de Carthage - Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis
Corps recomposés. Greffe et art contemporain, Le Scriptorial d'Avranches, Avranches
Elogio de la fatiga, Fabra i Coats, Barcelona
HIWAR - inaugural exhibition, AMOCA, the Arab Museum of Contemporary Art, Sakhnin
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