Intersections

By Mounir Fatmi

"This new exhibition provides fatmi with an opportunity to further explore one of the key themes of his work, having to do with cultural mix – an encounter which, as can be observed in the news, seems recurrently marked by a certain level of violence. However, it does not operate in one direction only, and a number of occurrences of empathy and mixing cultures speak for themselves. It is thus rather a love-hate relationship, where antagonistic forces are at work and where paradoxes and ambiguities express themselves. mounir fatmi takes a particular interest in this area of turbulence, as one could call it, in an exhibition which in more ways than one stands at the crossroads between a variety of universes and identities."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mounir Fatmi
• Release date: Nov 2, 2021

Mounir Fatmi

mounir fatmi is a visual artist born in Tangier, Morocco in 1970. He constructs visual spaces and linguistic games. His work deals with the desecration of religious objects, deconstruction, and the end of dogmas and ideologies. He questions the world and plays with its codes and precepts under the prism of architecture, language and the machine. He is particularly interested in the idea of the role of the artist in a society in crisis. mounir fatmi's work offers a look at the world from a different glance, refusing to be blinded by convention. He brings to light our doubts, fears and desires.He has published several books and art catalogs including: The Kissing Precise, with Régis Durand, La Muette edition, Brussels, 2013, Suspect Language, with Lillian Davies, Skira edition, Italy, 2012, This is not blasphemy, in collaboration with Ariel Kyrou, Inculte-Dernier Marge & Actes Sud edition, 2015, History is not Mine, SF Publishing, Paris, 2015, and Survival Signs, SF Publishing, Paris, 2017. He has also participated in the collective book, Letter to a young Moroccan, edition Seuil, Paris, 2009.He has participated in several solo and collective exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world including: Mamco, Geneva, The Picasso Museum, Vallauris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, N.B.K., Berlin, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, MAXXI, Rome, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, the Hayward Gallery, London, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.His installations have been selected in biennials such as the 52nd and the 57th Venice Biennial, the 8th biennial of Sharjah, the 5th Dakar Biennial, the 2nd Seville Biennial, the 5th Gwangju Biennial and the 10th Lyon Biennial, the 5th Auckland Triennial, Fotofest 2014, Houston, the 10th and 11th Bamako Encounters, as well as the 7th Biennale of Architecture in Shenzhen.mounir fatmi was awarded several prizes such as the Cairo Biennial Prize in 2010, the Uriöt prize, Amsterdam, the Grand Prize Leopold Sedar Senghor of the 7th Dakar Biennial in 2006 as well and he was shortlisted for the Jameel Prize of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London in 2013.

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To kick off the new season, the Keitelman gallery is pleased to present an exhibition by Moroccan artist mounir fatmi. It is the latter’s first solo exhibition hosted by a gallery in Belgium, following his high-profile input in the 2008 Brussels Biennial and at the B.P.S. 22 in Charleroi in 2012.

This new exhibition provides fatmi with an opportunity to further explore one of the key themes of his work, having to do with cultural mix – an encounter which, as can be observed in the news, seems recurrently marked by a certain level of violence. However, it does not operate in one direction only, and a number of occurrences of empathy and mixing cultures speak for themselves. It is thus rather a love-hate relationship, where antagonistic forces are at work and where paradoxes and ambiguities express themselves.

mounir fatmi takes a particular interest in this area of turbulence, as one could call it, in an exhibition which in more ways than one stands at the crossroads between a variety of universes and identities.

This is first of all reflected in the title he has chosen, which proves both explicit and full of allusions. Mathematically, an intersection indeed literally refers to the point or space where two different planes or spheres meet. A third space is thus created, concurrently new and clearly delineated. Now, in an exhibition that metaphorically deals with the encounter between peoples, the idea of delimited area may refer to the potential emergence of new territories, be they imaginary ones, as well as to the quarantine and isolation zones set up by our societies, such as the confined areas assigned to immigrants within airports, or even prisons.

Beyond the hint in the title, ambiguity also arises from the media used by the artist in his creative process. The exhibition shows a set of artworks related to photography, installation and drawing through to sculpture, all of which yet intermingle and endlessly substitute for one another. For instance, in the work based on Casablanca, a film is turned into a photograph, then into a drawing, before ending up as a sculpture. In The Blinding Light, we discover a painting that has been transformed into