Mounir Fatmi

Moroccan artist Mounir Fatmi explores the intersection between politics and popular culture in his video and installation works, culling subject matter from news headlines and personal experience alike. Circular saw blades bearing Qu'ranic verses, flags of Arab nations, hookahs, and videotape are among the highly charged elements Fatmi incorporates into his ominous and deeply critical artworks.

Inspired by his youth in a politically and culturally restricted Tangier, Fatmi simultaneously questions politics and mass media in his work while mining the psychological effects they have on the population at a personal level. For the 52nd Venice Biennale, for instance, the artist's Save Manhattan (2007) reconstructed the pre-9/11 New York skyline from speakers of various sizes, calling into question the impact that the cacophony of media and talking heads has had on the memory of individual lives lost. The post-9/11 world addressed in Fatmi's works is a fractured microcosm governed by our innate propensity towards scapegoating, separation, and fear.

In addition to being included in both the 52nd and 54th Venice Biennale (in 2007 and 2011, respectively), the artist has been the subject of solo shows, including presentations at the Centre d'Art Contemporain in Thiers, France (2008); the Moderna Museet in Sweden (2006); and Switzerland's Migros Museum (2004).