Mona Hatoum

Published to accompany an exhibition in 2014, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath of Art Reoriented, the book’s premise builds on the artist’s topical work Turbulence (2012), a 4 x 4 metre square composed of thousands of glass marbles laid directly onto the floor. Placed exactly at the centre of the exhibition, this installation lies at the heart of a linear but non-chronological trajectory whereby a number of unexpected juxtapositions echo the complexity through which the artist (Beirut, Lebanon, 1952) has managed to challenge, and at times disturb, our experience of the ordinary. The choice of the notion of turbulence as a conceptual framework for the exhibition is derived from the thematic and formal dichotomies inherent within the artist’s work. These render it familiar yet perplexing, allowing for an intense aesthetic experience that is both inviting yet impenetrable, or, in other words, turbulent. Text in English and Arabic.