mounir fatmi Morocco, b. 1970

Mounir Fatmi (b. 1970, Tangier, Morocco) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work interrogates systems of language, technology, and ideology. Known for reusing obsolete materials such as antenna cables, typewriters, and videotapes, he creates installations and objects that operate as both archaeological remains and critical commentaries on contemporary society.

His practice explores themes of memory, censorship, exile, and media, often confronting cultural taboos and highlighting contradictions in modern life. Fatmi’s art has been featured in major biennials—including Venice, Sharjah, Dakar, Lyon, and Gwangju—and exhibited widely at leading museums across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas.

Awarded prizes such as the Grand Prix Léopold Sédar Senghor at the Dakar Biennale and the Cairo Biennale Prize, Fatmi is regarded as a key figure linking North African artistic thought with global contemporary debates.

Selected Exhibitions

2025 – Biennale Grandeur Nature, Château de Fontainebleau, France

2025 – Énormément Bizarre, Centre Pompidou, Paris

2023 – Breaking the Cycle, Baró Galeria, Palma de Mallorca 

2017 – 57th Venice Biennale, Venice

2015 – Permanent Exiles, MAMCO, Geneva

2014 – History Is Not Mine, Brooklyn Museum, New York

2013 – Spot On: Mounir Fatmi, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf

2012 – The Future of a Promise, 54th Venice Biennale (collateral event), Venice

2011 – Megalopolis, AKBank Sanat, Istanbul

2010 – Without History, Picasso Museum – La Guerre et la Paix, Vallauris

2009 – Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah

2007 – 52nd Venice Biennale, Venice

2006 – Dakar Biennale (7th edition), Dakar

Collections 

– Centre Pompidou, Paris

– Brooklyn Museum, New York

– Palais de Tokyo, Paris

– MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome

– Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

– MMOMA – Moscow Museum of Modern Art

– Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha

– Hayward Gallery, London

– Victoria & Albert Museum, London

– Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

– ZKM – Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe

– Migros Museum, Zurich

– Gothenburg Konsthall, Gothenburg

– MAMCO, Geneva

– Picasso Museum – La Guerre et la Paix, Vallauris

– Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC