Between the Lines

By Mounir Fatmi

"Between the Lines is mounir fatmi's second solo show at Galerie Hussenot, continuing the artist’s ongoing investigation of the modern world. In diverse works, he constructs visual spaces and linguistic games that aim to free the viewer from preconceptions of politics and religion, allowing space for contemplation of how we think and who we are. A metaphor for a way of thinking, Between the Lines breaks down categories. Despite the monochrome nature of the exhibition, the message is far from black and white. It is the shades of grey that interest mounir fatmi: multiple interpretations of words, questioning the status quo instead of accepting universal truths, reading between the lines. The title recalls the artist's interest in language, which is adapted and appropriated into his own visual lexicon. Arabic verses from the Qur'an become decorative elements of videos and installations, as they once used to decorate armour and talismans. But instead of presenting these texts as religious doctrine, mounir fatmi absorbs them into less concrete and more complex configurations."

• 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.

Book preview

BETWEEN THE LINES

mounir fatmi

Between the Lines

mounir fatmi

This publication was made on the occasion of the solo exhibition Between the Lines at the Galerie Hussenot in Paris, by moroccan artist mounir fatmi, from January 8th to February 24th, 2011.

© 2020 mounir fatmi

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Published by: mounir fatmi

Cover Design: Studio Fatmi

Cover Photography: mounir fatmi

Table of Contents

Forward

Modern Times, a history of the machine

Technologia

Mixology

Mehr Licht!

The Falls

Mechanizaion 01

And yet it moves

Between the Lines Show

Biography

Colophon

Forward

Between the Lines is mounir fatmi's second solo show at Galerie Hussenot, continuing the artist’s ongoing investigation of the modern world. In diverse works, he constructs visual spaces and linguistic games that aim to free the viewer from preconceptions of politics and religion, allowing space for contemplation of how we think and who we are.

A metaphor for a way of thinking, Between the Lines breaks down categories. Despite the monochrome nature of the exhibition, the message is far