Mona Hatoum (b. 1952, Beiroet, LB | UK) was born into a Palestinian family in Beirut, Lebanon. While on a short visit to London in 1975, the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War prevented her from returning home. She has lived in London ever since.
Hatoum’s work is realised in a diverse range of media; in her large-scale installations she transforms industrial materials such as barbed wire, cement or steel into constructions that feel ordinary yet alienating. Her work aims to elicit both fascination and aversion in equal measure. It reflects on subjects that arise from our current global condition, systems of confinement and control as well as themes of conflict and displacement.
In 2019, Mona Hatoum was awarded the Praemium Imperiale for sculpture, an international acknowledgment of her expansive oeuvre. Her work has been showcased in group exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale (1995, 2005), documenta in Kassel (2002, 2017) and the Istanbul Biennial (1995, 2011). Solo exhibitions include a major survey organised by Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015) that toured to Tate Modern, London and KIASMA, Helsinki (2016).
