MONA HATOUM

Early Years and Background

Hatoum was born into a Palestinian family in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1952—her parents were refugees displaced during the Nakba. She studied graphic design at Beirut University College before political unrest forced her into exile during a visit to London in 1975; the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War made her return impossible. Hatoum pursued further study at the Byam Shaw School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She has lived and worked in London since 1975.

Mona Hatoum Artworks

Mona Hatoum’s practice spans installation, sculpture, video, and works on paper, and consistently explores home, exile, and the contradictions of familiar objects and spaces. Her early career in the 1980s was defined by confrontational performance and video works addressing political turmoil and the fragility of the body.

Seminal Works and Developments

• Measures of Distance (1988): A deeply personal video work layering images of her mother in Beirut with Hatoum’s own voice and Arabic letters, reflecting on separation, intimacy, and displacement.
• The Negotiating Table (1983): Hatoum used her body as a site of vulnerability in a performance confronting the violence of conflict.
• Corps étranger (1994), Deep Throat (1996): Landmark video installations that use endoscopic cameras to explore the body’s interior, inviting viewers into an uneasy proximity with the artist’s own body.
• Homebound (2000), Sous tension (1999): Large-scale installations wiring domestic furniture with electrical current, transforming the everyday into threatening or uncanny environments.
• Throughout the 2000s and beyond, Hatoum used found materials to create sculptures that evoke both delicacy and danger, asking viewers to reconsider the boundaries and politics of everyday life.

Select Public Commissions

• Numerous major international biennials, including Venice Biennale, Documenta, and Biennale of Sydney.
• Institutional commissions have been represented at Barbican Centre (2025), Kunsthal KAdE (2025), KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art Berlin (2022–23), and Magasin III Stockholm (2022).

Select Awards and Accolades

• Praemium Imperiale, Japan Art Association (2019)
• Hiroshima Art Prize (2017)
• Joan Miró Prize (2011)
• Whitechapel Art Icon Award (2018)
• Turner Prize shortlist (1995)

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Mona Hatoum Exhibitions

Mona Hatoum has been featured in more than 40 solo institutional exhibitions and participated in major group shows worldwide. To find upcoming exhibitions, follow Mona Hatoum on Ocula.

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Encounters: Giacometti x Mona Hatoum, Barbican Centre, London (2025–26)
• Inside Out, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort (2025)
• KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2022–23)
• Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin (2022–23)
• Centre Pompidou, Paris / Tate Modern, London / Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (2015–16)

Select Group Exhibitions

• By Way Of: Material and Motion in the Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2024–25)
• Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens (2017)
• 5th Moscow Biennale (2013)
• Biennale of Sydney (2006)
• 51st Venice Biennale (2005)
• Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London (1995)

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More Reading

Mona Hatoum’s work and career are featured in-depth in Ocula Magazine’s interviews and news section. Read about Mona Hatoum in Ocula Magazine.

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Ocula | 2025