Palazzo Querini Stampalia - Mona Hatoum. The Mona Hatoum exhibition at the Palazzo Querini Stampalia entitled Interior Landscapes is open until. September 20th and should not be missed. Hatoumi’s Interior Landscapes was conceived as part of an ongoing series of projects titled, Preserving the Future, that focus on the relationship between historic and contemporary art, between the past that needs to be preserved and the future still to be planned. Querini Stampalia is committed to the idea that contemporary artists may offer a different perspective on our past, and the notion that the past requires action and transformation; that it is alive. Mona Hatoum was invited to respond to the memory and the history of Querini Stampalia and created an exhibition that brings a new and vibrant context to the museum. The exhibition includes several new works as well as a number of interventions in the museum collection using the furniture as the container or frame for some new ideas and some existing works which, when placed in the museum’s historic setting, generate different meanings.
Above: Hot Spot III, stainless steel, neon tube, 2009. Hot Spot is a cage-like globe, which tilts at the same angle as the Earth. Using delicate neon to outline the contours of the world on its surface. The work buzzes with an intense energy, bathing its surroundings in a luminescent red glow.
Palazzo Querini Stampalia - Mona Hatoum. Worry Beads, patinated bronze, mild steel, 2009. Worry beads take the form of a Muslin string of prayer beads, but is presented in gigantic and threatening proportions because the beads have been enlarged to the size of cannon balls. No longer used to mark the monotonous rhythm of a prayer or a chant, the hypnotic sound of the beads has now become a series of precise and violent blows that put us on alert.
Palazzo Querini Stampalia - Mona Hatoum. The Hatoum teacups T42 (gold) are incorporated into the museum’s china cabinet.
Palazzo Querini Stampalia - Mona Hatoum. T42 (gold), gold trimmed fine stoneware in two parts, 1999. As the title suggest, it is a set of teacups for two, but one which cannot in fact be used by two people as the cups are joined together.
Palazzo Querini Stampalia - Mona Hatoum. Keffieh, human hair, cotton fabric, 1993-1999. An Arab headscarf with its characteristic black pattern embroidered using long strands of human hair creating a strange object full of contradictions.
Palazzo Querini Stampalia - Mona Hatoum. Impenetrable, black finished steel, fishing wire, 2009. A cube of barbed wire becomes so light that it “levitates” in the room, suspended in the void. Once again Hatoum’s capacity for synthesis allows her to hold different levels together, in this case neutralizing the “dangerous” and “terrible” one through magic and wonder.
Palazzo Querini Stampalia - Mona Hatoum. A detail of Impenetrable.