Mona Hatoum

Text: Kay Roberts
Image: A. Osio

Before arriving at the Galerie Chantal Crousel, this exhibition of Mona Hatoum's work was shown during the 2024 Venice Biennale at the Palazzo Querini Stampalia. However if you didn't see it there have no regrets, for in that exhibition the works were shown within the collection, here they are shown sothe relationship between the works is clearly visible and this increases their impact.

From the moment you enter the gallery, to be met by a hanging wall of black barbed wire, the desire to touch the works is strong, but forbidden. All the works have a tactile quality, shine, glass hand grenades nestle in an Edwardian cabinet the colours like Christmas decorations; beads in the shape of a spiders web are delicately suspended between 6 period armchairs; maps of Beirut, Bagdad and Kabul carefully cut into with concentric circles, are these sites of destruction?; prayer beads the size of cannon balls laying on the floor; these, and many other works, allude to Hatoum's cultural background, (she is Palestinian, educated in the UK) without giving an overt political message. These are works to contemplate and enjoy for their beauty, a dreadful beauty given their references; to begin by being drawn in to by their elegance, seductive colour or texture; to end with being aware of the pain behind the physical object.

Mona Hatoum
13 March to 24 April
Galerie Chantal Crousel
10, rue Charlot
75003 Paris
M° Saint-Sébastien - Froissard, Filles du Calvaire
Open from Tuesday to Saturday 11h-13h / 14h-19h