Mounir Fatmi: Les Connexions, 2004 (Detail)
Books and connection cables. Courtesy Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica
via ArtKrush, Issue 31 :
African Art Now
May 3-16, 2006
The only biennial devoted to contemporary African art, Dak'Art lights up West Africa this week with a showcase of visual artists, designers, and digital innovators. After surveying its offerings, we spotlight the South African photographer and performance artist Robin Rhode, who plays tricks on the eyes with his chalk illusions. Deferring to experts on African creativity, we interview super-curator Okwui Enwezor, the man behind Snap Judgments at ICP in New York, and review a new book on Jean Pigozzi's Contemporary African Art Collection. Among our reviews of global exhibitions, we feature Ellen Gallagher's project DeLuxe, a playful response to the evolution of African-American culture.
about Mounir Fatmi (image above):
The cover image for this issue of Artkrush is a detail of the 2004 installation Les Connexions by Mounir Fatmi. His work is on view at Dak'Art 2006, the 7th Biennial of African Contemporary Art in Dakar, Senegal, from May 5 to June 5.
Mounir Fatmi was born in 1970 in Morocco, and lives and works in Paris and Tangiers. Through his work in video, photography, installation, and performance, Fatmi questions the role of art and its codependent relationship with a society that both reveres and dismisses it. In 1993 he proclaimed his death as a painter and since then has used photography and video to explore art as a tool of communication. His work has been exhibited extensively in galleries and film festivals since the early '90s.
Fatmi's work can also currently be seen in the group exhibition Black Panther Party for Self-Defense at Galerie la B.A.N.K in Paris, through May 27. His work will be on view as well in several upcoming group shows, including Africa Remix at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, which opens May 27 and runs through August 31, and the 2nd International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville, which opens October 26 and runs through January 15, 2007. A solo exhibition opens at Galerie la B.A.N.K on June 1 and continues through September 23.
Fatmi is an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam where he is working on his full-length film The Prophets. He is represented by Galerie la B.A.N.K in Paris and Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica, California, and the French non-profit association Heure Exquise ! distributes his videos.
