Mounir Fatmi

Mounir Fatmi was born in Tangier, Morocco, in 1970. He spent his childhood in the district of Casabarata,[3] playing in the giant flea market, where his mother sold clothes for children. The flea market, a chaotic world where everyday consumer goods, images and sounds abound, it is seen by the artist as an open-air museum in ruins, full of obsolete and abandoned objects and becomes soon his first art school.

In 1975 his family moved to Casablanca, first in the district of the Old Medina, street of the consulate of England, district called La Croix-Rouge. During his adolescence he discovers the city and its architecture: the Sidi Bousmara square, the Sidi Allal Karouani mausoleum, the Zaouiat Darkaouia, the Imperial cinema, the Central Hotel, the fortifications of the Sqala, the Zerktouni garden.

In 1987, he leaves Morocco and his family environment to go to Italy. He enrolled as a student at the Free School of Nude and Engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts[4] in Rome. During the years of his artistic studies he questions the issue of individual identity and begins to reflect on the role of the artist in a society in crisis.

In 1989, back in Casablanca, he attended the art school for one single term. When he returns to Tangier in 1990, he is interested in the architecture of his childhood home and some decorative elements that will mark him visibly: a photograph of King Mohammed V, an Arabic calligraphy and a copy of the Koran that he was forbidden to touch when he was a child.

Here, he meet the Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri who introduces him to the American writer Paul Bowles, thanks to whom he discovers the writings of Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Jean Genet. The discovery of the Beat Generation literature is a great source of artistic and intellectual inspiration and it is what opens the door to the desire to travel and experiment.

The same year, he make his first installations and research in video, as well as his first major series of paintings, Fragile / Communication (1990-1996).

In 1990 he works as artistic director in an advertising agency in Casablanca. By promoting consumer products, he experiments the rhetorical power of advertising and the influence of images on the consumer public and he develops a critical awareness of the aesthetic strategies of communication and information flow. He begins the iconographic project The Fourth Cover,[5] inspired by his professional experience and advertising rhetoric.

In 1993 he receives the first prize at the 3rd Biennial of Young Moroccan Painting, for the serie Fragile / Communication and on this occasion he meets Catherine David, president of the jury. Immediately after, he begins The Antibiotics, evolutionary series of 141 paintings, which he shows to witnesses in exchange for their photographic portrait.[6]

In 1995, he becomes known outside of Morocco thanks to his work with videos. He is selected at the international videokunstpreis at the ZKM3 in Karlsruhe.[7]

Fatmi at Dakar Biennale in 2000 (with Goddy Leye and Sandrine Dole)

In 1996, he left his position as artistic director in advertising and he multiplies his artistic projects. He begins the series of paintings No Witness and Obliteration Memorizing. Spectators are invited to contemplate the works done before they are covered with several layers of white paint. The performance establishes a clear line of separation between "Those who have seen" and "Those who have not seen" the works before their erasure. The witnesses of the paintings are finally photographed and their portraits are placed alongside the works stamped Painted, Seen, Erased. A year later, he realizes the Coma performance, during which canvases were shown to witnesses before being wrapped and packed in clear plastic covers. In the meantime, he finishes the video Arabesque, a tribute to Jackson Pollock, and he wins the Audience Award at the 4th Casablanca Video Art Festival.

He starts traveling all over Europe, winning prizes and special mentions for his videos. In 1998, he wins the Special Mention of the 3rd International New Film Festival in Split in Croatia, the Prize for the best video creation at the International Video Festival in the Canary Islands and the special Jury Prize at the 16th Video Art Festival, in Estavar-Llivia in Spain for the video Survival signs.

In 1999 he meets the curator Jean-Louis Froment and takes part in the exhibition "L'objet désorienté"[8] at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, where he made the sculpture Connections, tribute to Jackson Pollock using over five hundred meters of antenna cables on walls and floors.

In 2000 he receives two fellowships and residency in France and He participates in several exhibitions in Europe and in the United States: Art Video TV Biennal in Bologna, Italy, MAMAC Auditorium, in Nice, France and Society for Cinema Studies, in Chicago, USA. He is invited by Tarik el Haik and Edith Cramer at the University of California at Berkeley California and at the San Francisco Pacific Film Archive for the projection of his videos grouped under the title Rehearsing Arab Identity. He is selected at the 5th Dakar Biennale, where he meets the curator Simon Njami.

In 2003, the Migros Museum of Contemporary Art in Zürich devotes a personal exhibition to him under the title Obstacles. He meets Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden, from the conceptual group Art & Language.

The following year, he is invited by Simon Njami and Jean-Hubert Martin to participate in the exhibition Africa remix, at the museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, the Hayward gallery in London, the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, the Mori art museum in Tokyo, the Moderna musset in Stockholm, and the Johannesburg Art Gallery in Johannesburg.[9]

In 2006 he receives a scholarship from the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam where he receives the Uriôt Prize and exhibits the installation "Out of History" using the Black Panthers archives and FBI documents. He also participates in the 7th Dakar Biennale and he receives the Grand Prix Leopold Sedar Senghor for his installation Out of History.

He starts a series of trips to the United States where he has his first solo exhibitions in American galleries: "Fuck architects, chapter I" at the Lombard-freid project in New York and "Something is possible" at Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica.[10]

The video Embargo, made in 1997, is part of the programming "Paradise Now! Essential French Avant-garde Cinema 1890-2008", at the Tate Modern in London.

In 2010, he is selected for several biennials and he receives the Cairo Biennial Prize at the 12th International Biennale in Cairo.

From 2011 begins a period of censorship for the artist.[11] The installation The Lost Springs is removed from the selection of the 11th Biennale of Havana, and censored after only three hours of exposure to the International Fair Art Dubai. Only one year later, the installation Technology, inspired by Marcel Duchamp and Arabic calligraphy, is censored during the event "L'Histoire est à moi!", organized on the occasion of the Spring of September in Toulouse. Also the video Sleep - Al Naim, where the writer Salman Rushdie is represented sleeping through a computer graphic work, is censored in several Arab countries and in Europe. To respond to the attacks of censorship, he collaborates with the philosopher Ariel Kyrou for the writing of the book Ceci n'est pas un blasphème.

His work Modern Times, a History of the Machine is selected for the Jameel Prize 3 of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, in 2013, and is exhibited in group shows related to this award at the [[Hermitage-Kazan[12]]] in Kazan, at the Moscow Manege in Moscow, at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization in Sharjah and at National Library, Singapore in Singapore.[13]

In 2014 Modern Times, A history of the Machine is projected on the facade of the Grand Palais in Paris, on the occasion of the event Art Paris.

In 2016, he launches the project of traveling exhibitions The Exile Pavilion and he organizes the first stage at the National Archives Museum in Paris. He is selected for the exhibition Fundamental at the 5th Mediations Biennale of Poznan[14] and for the Triennial of Setouchi Awashima Community Area[15] in Japan. In 2017, he participates in the exhibition The Absence of Paths: 1st Tunisian Pavilion[16] at the 57th Venice Biennale.

• Permanent Exiles, MAMCO, Geneva
• History is not mine, Metavilla, Bordeaux
• Art et Patrimoine: C'est encore la nuit, Prison Qara - Institut Français de Meknès, Morocco
• Modern Times, Miami Beach Urban Studios Gallery - Florida International University, Miami Beach
• Constructing Illusion, Analix Forever, Geneva

• The Index and The marchine, ADN Platform, San Cugat del Vallès
• A Savage Mind, Keitelman Gallery, Bruxelles
• Depth of Field, Labanque, Béthune
• Darkening Process, The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts, Marrakech

• Transition State, Officine dell'Immagine, Milan[26]
• Peripheral Vision, Art Front Gallery, Tokyo
• (IM)possible Union, Analix Forever Gallery, Geneva
• Survival Signs, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York[27]
• Le Pavillon de l’exil, Galerie Delacroix, Tanger
• Fragmented Memory, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg[28]
• Inside the Fire Circle, Lawrie Shabibi , Dubai[29]

• The Human Factor, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo[30]
• The Day of the Awakening, CDAN Museum - Centro de Arte Y Naturaleza, Huesca[31]
• 180° Behind Me, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg[32]

• The White Matter, Galerie Ceysson & Bénétière, Paris
• The Process, Wilde Gallery, Geneva
• Keeping Faith - Keeping Drawing, Analix Forever, Geneva

• Diverse works: Director's Choice, 1997-2015, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn
• Jameel Prize 3, Sharjah Museum, Sharjah
• Jameel Prize 3, The National Library, Singapore
• Fotofest 2014: Views from the inside, ADMAF, Abu Dhabi
• Art et Prison - We only exist when we create, Contemporary Istanbul, Istanbul
• The Migrant (Moving) Image, A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam
• Who said tomorrow doesn't exist?, 1st Trio Biennial, Rio de Janeiro

• Cut up/cut out, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek[33]
• Al-tiba9, Bardo National Museum, Alger
• Nothing but blue skies, retour sur l'image médiatique du 11 septembre, Arles 2016 - Les Rencontres de la photographie, Arles
• Setouchi Art, Isetan Mitsukoshi, Tokyo
• On the Origins of Art, MONA - Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart
• Setouchi Art, Isetan Mitsukoshi, Tokyo

• 57th Venice Bienale 2017, NSK State Pavilion, Venice[34]
• Cut Up/Cut Out , Huntsville Museum of Art , Huntsville
• Saout Africa(s) - SAVVY Funk - Documenta 14, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin
• Cut Up / Cut Out, Bellevue Arts Museum[35]
• State of the World, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City
• Diaspora Now, Gifu Museum, Gifu

• Cut Up/Cut Out, Museum of Arts & Sciences, Daytona Beach[36]
• Revolution Generations, Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha[37]
• Second Life, Musée d'Art Contemporain Africain Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech
• EXOTIC × MODERN: French Art Deco and inspiration afar, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo
• People Get Ready, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham
• Un œil ouvert sur le monde arabe, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
• Cut Up/Cut Out , Ellen Noël Art Museum, Odessa
• Scripted Reality, 10 Hanover, London
• Le Pavillon de l'Exil - Off de la Biennale de Dakar, Institut Français de Saint Louis, Saint Louis
• Cut Up/Cut Out , Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola

• Silent Narratives, Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan
• Al-Tiba9, MAMA, Algiers
• Prête-moi ton Rêve, Musée de Civilisations noires de Dakar, Dakar
• Miroir collectif, Musée Bank Al-Maghrib, Rabat
• The I is Always in the Field of the Other, Evliyagil Museum, Ankara
• Une collection d'art contemporain, Musée des Beaux-arts de Carcassonne, Carcassonne
• Collecting in the 21st century, If an accumulation reflects a life, Collection Lambert, Avignon
• Cut Up/Cut Out, AMoA-Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo

• Telling Time, 10eme Biennale Africaine de la Photographie, Bamako
• Between the Pessimism of the Intellect and the Optimism of the Will, 5th Thessaloniki Biennale, Thessaloniki

• Fundamental, 5th Mediations Biennale 2016, Poznań
• Setouchi Triennale 2016, Awashima Community Area, Japan

• Tunisian Pavilion, The Absence of Paths, 57a Biennale di Venezia 2017, Venezia
• 7eme Biennale d'Architecture de Shenzhen, Nantou Old Town, Shenzhen
• Rencontres de Bamako, 11eme Biennale Africaine de la Photographie, Bamako

• Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale, Echigo Tsumari, Niigata
• Biennale Agora d'Architecture de Rabat, Culée Creuse, Rabat
• L'heure Rouge/The Red Hour, 13eme Biennale de Dakar, Dakar

• Setouchi Triennale 2019, Awashima Island, Awashima, Japan
• SCREEN IT - Stadstriennale Hasselt Genk 5, Hasselt, Hasselt