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Portrait of Mona Hatoum

Mona Hatoum

Influential artist blending politics, feminism, and personal narrative in work.

Born
1952
Born in
Beirut, Lebanon
Path
Arts
Read Mona’s story2 videosAsk about Mona

Why Mona is here

Pioneering multimedia and installation artist known for her provocative and politically charged works.

Their story

Mona Hatoum is a Palestinian-British sculptor and multimedia artist. Born to Palestinian parents in Beirut, Hatoum identifies as Palestinian. Her work, spanning sculpture, installation, and performance art, often reflects themes of home, displacement, and surveillance, challenging viewers' perspectives on the familiar and the foreign.

In pictures

Milestones

The moments that shaped Mona’s path.

  1. 1985

    Performed "Road Works" in Brixton, London, a response to race riots and police enforcement.

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  2. 1988

    Created "Measures of Distance," exploring displacement and familial separation.

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  3. 1992

    Exhibited "Light Sentence," focusing on themes of confinement and disorientation.

  4. 1995

    Shortlisted for the Turner Prize; her body of work included Corps étranger (1994).

  5. 2017

    Created "Remains (chair)" for the 10th Hiroshima Art Prize.

Legacy

What they built, changed and left behind.

  1. Utilizing threat and violence to transform the familiar into the dangerous.

  2. Infusing humor into serious subjects like war and gender relations.

  3. Investigating the 'abject' and the corporeal reality using her body as art material.

  4. Expressing visual interest in prison, cage, and mesh-like structures.

  5. Exploring tension and paradox through the combination of opposites in her artworks.

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Watch & listen

Mona in interviews, talks and coverage.

  • 01Watch on YouTube↗

  • 02Watch on YouTube↗

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