Mounir Fatmi b. 1970

Overview

Mounir Fatmi, Around The Square 18, 2018, 200 x 200 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Lawrie Shabibi.

Mounir Fatmi (b. 1970, Tangier, Morocco) works with installation, sculpture and mixed media to explore the relationship between technology, memory and systems of communication. Using materials such as antenna cable, typewriters and VHS tapes, he develops what he describes as an experimental archaeology that questions the world and the role of the artist in a society in crisis. Working through a trinity of Architecture, Language and Machine, his practice examines the limits of memory, language and communication while reflecting on obsolete media and their uncertain future. His work engages with the history of technology and its influence on popular culture, and can be understood as the construction of future archives in the making. Fatmi studied at the Academy of Arts in Rome, the Casablanca Art School and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Fatmi has exhibited at institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; MAXXI, Rome; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Mathaf, Doha; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the Migros Museum, Zurich. His work is held in public and private collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Mathaf, Doha; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; and the Brooklyn Museum, New York.

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Works

Underneath, 2007
Save Manhattan 03, 2007
Without History-Obstacles, 2007
Bas-Relief/Al Jazeera, 2007
Ghosting, 2009
Modern Times, A History of the Machine, 2009
Brainteaser For A Moderate Muslim, 2009
Mehr Licht, 2009-11
Maximum Sensation 52, 2010
Forget, 2010
Intersection 05, 2011
Circles 02, 2011
CIrcles 05, 2011
Intersection 09, 2011
Union Impossible, 2011
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, 2012
The Blinding Light, 2013
The Blackboard (Version 1), 2013
History is Not Mine, 2013
Deconstruction Structure N°1, 2015
Inside the Fire Circle, 2017
Around the Square 17, 2018
Around The Square 18, 2018
Modern Times 91, 2024 - 2025
Modern Times 45, 2024 - 2025
Modern Times 41, 2024 - 2025
Modern Times 49, 2024 - 2025
Modern Times 47, 2024 - 2025
Modern Times 90, 2024-2025

Biography

Portrait of Mounir Fatmi

Mounir Fatmi (b. 1970, Tangier, Morocco) is a Moroccan artist whose practice explores the relationship between technology, memory and systems of communication through installation, sculpture and mixed media. Using materials such as antenna cable, typewriters, VHS tapes and other obsolete media, he develops what he describes as an experimental archaeology, reflecting on the history of technology and its influence on popular culture. His work often examines how systems of language, architecture and machines shape the way knowledge is transmitted, questioning the limits of memory, communication and cultural identity. Fatmi studied at the Academy of Arts in Rome, the Casablanca Art School, and later at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.

Influenced by the experience of growing up in Tangier and spending his childhood in the flea market of Casabarata, the artist frequently works with discarded or worn everyday objects, treating them as fragments of cultural history. His practice situates the artwork between archive and archaeology, using obsolete materials to reflect on the collapse of industrial and consumerist systems and to question the authority of images, ideologies and technological progress. Through this approach, Fatmi’s works often function as future archives, preserving the visual language of the present while revealing its instability.

Since 2000, Fatmi’s work has been presented in major international biennials, including the 52nd and 57th Venice Biennales; the 8th Sharjah Biennale; the 5th and 7th Dakar Biennales; the 2nd Seville Biennale; the 5th Gwangju Biennale; the 10th Lyon Biennale; the 5th Auckland Triennial; the 10th and 11th Bamako Biennales; the 7th Shenzhen Architecture Biennale; the Setouchi Triennial; and the Echigo-Tsumari Triennial, Japan.

Fatmi’s select institutional exhibitions include Mamco, Geneva, Migros Museum für Gegenwarskunst, Zürich, Switzerland; Picasso Museum, war and peace, Vallauris; FRAC Alsace, Sélestat; Contemporary Art Center Le Parvis; Fondazione Collegio San Caro, Modena; AK Bank Foundation, Istanbul; Museum Kunst Palast, Duesseldorf and MMP+,Marrakesh. Selected solo exhibitions include ones at the Migros Museum, Zurich; MAMCO, Geneva; Picasso Museum La Guerre et la Paix, Vallauris; AK Bank Foundation, Istanbul; Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf and at the Gothenburg Konsthall.

Mounir Fatmi has participated in numerous international group exhibitions, including 7 Contours, 1 Collection at MACAAL, Marrakech; Énormément Bizarre Collection Jean Chatelus at Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Horizons en Mouvement at the Musée Mohammed VI d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Rabat (all 2025). Recent exhibitions include Navigating Art in the Post-Internet Landscape at Misk Art Institute, Riyadh; ECCENTRIC at Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; and multiple iterations of Tradition Interrupted across institutions such as The Baker Museum, Naples, and Marion Art Gallery, Fredonia (2024). Earlier presentations include Tourist! The Grand Tour at BienalSur, Buenos Aires (2023); Under Construction at Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2021); Setouchi Triennale (2019); Revolution Generations at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; and Beyond Borders at Fondation Boghossian, Brussels (both 2018). Fatmi has also participated in major international exhibitions and biennales including the 57th Venice Biennale, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, and Manif d’Art 6 – Québec Biennial, among others.

He has received several awards including the Uriöt Prize, Amsterdam; the Grand Prix Léopold Sédar Senghor at the 7th Dakar Biennale (2006); and the Cairo Biennale Prize (2010). He was shortlisted for the Jameel Prize at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in 2013.

His work is held in major public and private collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain d’Alsace; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; MOCAK, Krakow; Mathaf, Doha; Qatar Foundation, Doha; Darat al Funun, Amman; Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Luanda; National Museum of Mali, Bamako; Bank Al-Maghrib, Casablanca; Museum of the ONA Foundation, Casablanca; Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis; Koç Foundation, Istanbul; The Farjam Collection, Dubai; Articulate Contemporary Art Fund, London; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the Hessel Foundation / Bard Museum, New York, among others.

Fatmi lives and works between Paris and Tangier.

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Exhibitions