Stephen E. Ostrow Distinguished Visitors
MONA HATOUM
OCTOBER 14, 2006
Mona Hatoum, is a Palestinian, was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1952. She has lived in London England since the outbreak of civil war in Beirut in 1975. She attended the Byam Shaw School of Art (1975-79) and the Slade School of Art 1979-81. Hatoum's work is informed by notions of violence and separation but goes well beyond the political discourses on the conflict in the Middle East. The themes of dispossession, displacement and claustrophobia are related to concerns with the role of the body in the formation of identity. Until the late 1980s Hatoum worked primarily with video and performance. During the 90s these artistic practices gave way to a more sculptural approach and installation has become now her preferred form of expression.
Hatoum has exhibited internationally. Her important one-person shows include the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto in 1993, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1994, the Tate Gallery in London in 1995, and the current MCA-organized, U.S. touring exhibition. She was invited to show her work in the Venice Biennial in 1995, and she has exhibited in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Musée d'art Contemporain de Montreal, to name just a few. In addition, she won two of the most the prestigious awards in Europe in 2004, The Roswitha Haftmann Preis, Zurich and the Sonning Prize, Copenhagen. She received the George-Maciunas-Preis, Wiesbaden-Erbenheimin 2000.
During her stay in Portland, Hatoum met with classes to give critiques to seniors, and gave an afternoon semiar in the Douglas F. Memorial Cooley Gallery where her work was exhibited.