The Age of Consequences

By Mounir Fatmi

"From 13 May to 30 July 2021, Officine dell'Immagine in Milan will be hosting the second solo show of mounir fatmi (Tangier, Morocco, 1970), one of the most prestigious voices of contemporary art. Curated by Silvia Cirelli, the exhibition brings together a selection of the most significant works of this great interpreter, paying tribute to his long and consolidated career.
Always a witness to the complex socio-cultural fabric of contemporary life, fatmi stands out thanks to his stylistic approach capable of relating to highly topical issues such as identity, multiculturalism, the ambiguities of language and the importance of communication as a social thermometer of human developments.
Using performative and participatory experiences, the artist brings the narrative back to the mechanisms of communication understood as cultural stratification, translating the precariousness of a historical moment marked by a sense of vulnerability and collective uprooting.
The exhibition offers the opportunity for a wide-ranging insight into the poetics of mounir fatmi, highlighting his great lexical ability, exploring stylistic languages ranging from installation to sculpture, from drawing to photography."
Officine dell’Immagine, May 2021

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mounir Fatmi
• Release date: Oct 29, 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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From 13 May to 30 July 2021, Officine dell'Immagine in Milan will be hosting the second solo show of mounir fatmi (Tangier, Morocco, 1970), one of the most prestigious voices of contemporary art. Curated by Silvia Cirelli, the exhibition brings together a selection of the most significant works of this great interpreter, paying tribute to his long and consolidated career.

Already well-known internationally and certainly one of the leading figures on today's art scene, mounir fatmi is among the highlights of the current Moroccan Trilogy exhibition at the Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno Reina Sofia in Madrid, the group show Memory of Defence at the Es Baluard Museum in Palma, the Icons exhibition at the Boghossian Foundation in Brussels, and The Slipstream exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. He will be also among the artists of the next Casablanca Biennale and of the Biennale d'art contemporain Hybride in Lens.

Called upon to exhibit in prestigious museums such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, or the MAXXI in Rome, his works are also to be found in major public collections, including those of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Louvre Abu Dhabi; the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la création, Paris; the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; and the Brooklyn Museum, New York.

Always a witness to the complex socio-cultural fabric of contemporary life, fatmi stands out thanks to his stylistic approach capable of relating to highly topical issues such as identity, multiculturalism, the ambiguities of language and the importance of communication as a social thermometer of human developments.

Using performative and participatory experiences, the artist brings the narrative back to the mechanisms of communication understood as cultural stratification, translating the precariousness of a historical moment marked by a sense of vulnerability and collective uprooting.

The exhibition offers the opportunity for a wide-ranging insight into the poetics of mounir fatmi, highlighting his great lexical ability, exploring stylistic languages ranging from installation to sculpture, from drawing to photography.

In works such as La Pietà from 2007 and Everything Behind Me from 2018, the choice of the material used is a central focus, with long white antenna cables, a mode of expression that the artist has been developing since 1998. Known for their use in transmitting data, whether images, words or audio, cables are the emblem par excellence of connection, of transmissibility between people and things. And it