History Is Not Mine

By Mounir Fatmi

"The immediate subject of History is not mine is censorship, broadening out into the underlying theme of fatmi’s work - meaning and its deformation by power. His work is driven by the impossible desire to evade all forms of indoctrination. Across a wide range of media, fatmi attempts this through the construction of highly tactical visual spaces and linguistic games that identify and foreground the violent operations of the forces of capital, politics and religion to dominate thought and language. These aestheticized and elegantly seditious provocations are designed to generate skepticism and criticality.
The show's title plays on the title of a group exhibition, History is Mine staged last year in Toulouse in which a video work by fatmi, Technologia which combines verses of the Qu’ran with elements inspired by Duchamp’s Rotoreliefs, was removed from display following violence and rioting from certain local elements in response to the work. Shortly after Paris's Institut du Monde Arabe removed Fatmi’s video piece Sleep Al-Naim from an exhibition on Arabic creativity fearing the work would incite controversy. "

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mounir Fatmi
• Release date: Nov 3, 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

History Is Not Mine

mounir fatmi

History Is Not Mine

mounir fatmi

This publication was made on the occasion of the solo exhibition History Is Not Mine at the Paradise Row Gallery in London, by moroccan artist mounir fatmi, from April 19th to June 01st, 2013.

© 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

History is not mine

Sleep Al Naim

Between the lines

Circles

Without History

Encounter 02

History is not mine Show

Mounir Fatmi: History is Not Mine at Paradise Row Gallery, London

Biography

Colophon

Forward

All warfare is based on deception

The Art of War, Sun Tzu

Paradise Row is pleased to present History is not mine, the first UK solo exhibition of works by mounir fatmi

The immediate subject of History is not mine is censorship, broadening out into the underlying theme of fatmi’s work - meaning and its deformation by power. His work