Mona Hatoum...

12:00 p.m.

Modified daily-life objects. That's is the essence of what Mona Hatoum (Beirut, 1952) is presenting at Fundación Proa. What does she pretend with these distortions? Transformations, producing a semantic change in which the objects lose their names and gain new meanings. And what's the purpose? Because they are have something to do with the life of the artist, the lack of territory, the lost of borders and post-colonialism. 
Hatoum was born in Beirut because her parents were exiled there after the British domination that gave birth to the State of Israel. In her 20s, while in London, civil war unravels in Lebanon so she can no longer return. She becomes a forced migrant. This violence seen in the world is reflected in her work.
Natura Morta (Medical Cabinet), by Mona Hatoum
Materials: metal, glass / Measures: 61.5 x 54 x 17.5 cm
In other artworks, the artist does not directly refers to the violence, but shows it through misplaced daily objects. It's what happens to a person that can not find his/her home place because he/she was forced to abandon it.
Paravent, by Mona Hatoum
Materials: black-painted steel / Measures: 215x 302 x 5 cm
Electrified (variable II), by Mona Hatoum
Materials: kitchenware, chair, electric wire, lamp / Variable dimensions
Worry Beads, by Mona Hatoum
Materials: bronze, steel / Variable dimensions
Although a straw hat represents summer and outdoor recreation verano, in Hatoum's case it has a new meaning. Her work "Hat for two", where two straw hats blend into one, it's an ambivalence between intimacy and forced coexistence. As explained in the exhibition signs, it's mainly a metaphoric or visual acrobacy which demonstrates how one same artwork can be both calming and suffocating.
Capello per due, by Mona Hatoum
Materials: Straw, wood, steel / Measures: 11.5 x 70.5 x 42 cm  (hat)
This is, in fact, an exhibition in which the critical view of the artist is present in each of her artworks, but also certain melancholy: in "Distance measures", a 1988 video, she shows the relationship between a mother and her daughter in the distance.

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Contents

Liliana Wrobel


Production & Translation

Carla Mitrani

Contact

ObrasMNBA@gmail.com