Something Is Possible

By Mounir Fatmi

"mounir fatmi constructs visual spaces and linguistic games that aim to free the viewer from their preconceptions of politics and religion, and allow them to contemplate these and other subjects in new ways. His videos, installations, drawings, paintings and sculptures bring to light our doubts, fears and desires. They directly address the current events of our world and serve to both explicate the origins and symptoms of global issues, as well as speak to those whose lives are affected by specific events. The exhibition Something is Possible, gathers together a series of artworks in diverse media that ask the viewer to search for hope within often terrifying and difficult subjects. His sculptural installations using massive amounts of antenna cable inherently reference the transmission of information and the worldwide communications network. His severing and rejoining of the cables hints at the underlying media censorship, where gaps in information become gaps in public knowledge and understanding. In a similar manner, his sculptures formed out of VHS cassettes reference the bombardment of media through incessant duplication and repetition. In the most overtly political work of the exhibition, flags of each of the G8 countries, which act as visually symbolic icons of the enormous power held by these nations, are relegated to mere adornments atop push-brooms; both a tool of the common worker and a reminder of those affected by the decisions of the group."

• 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

SOMETHING IS POSSIBLE

mounir fatmi

Something is Possible

mounir fatmi

This publication was made on the occasion of the solo exhibition Something is Possible at the Shashana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica, California, USA, by moroccan artist mounir fatmi, from February 10th to March 17 th, 2007.

© 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

Something is Possible

G8 The Brooms

Black Screens / The Line

Rosary

The Circle

Evolution or Death

Something is Possible Show

Biography

Colophon

Forward

Shoshana Wayne Gallery is pleased to present its first exhibition of work by mounir fatmi. mounir fatmi constructs visual spaces and linguistic games that aim to free