Mona Hatoum

Mona Hatoum (b. 1952, Beirut, Lebanon) is an artist based in London who works in sculpture, installation, video, works on paper and photography. Born in Beirut to a Palestinian family, Hatoum has lived in London since 1975. Her subjects are the body, the home and the world map, with allusions to violence and imprisonment. She turns chairs, cots, kitchen utensils and furniture into strange or menacing objects. She also builds metal grids and world maps from wool, soap or glass marbles.

She began with performance and video centred on the body. Measures of Distance (1988) is a video built on letters and conversations with her mother. Corps étranger (1994) projects endoscopic footage of her body onto the floor of a cylindrical structure. Present Tense (1996) is a map laid out in Nablus soap and beads. Homebound (2000) wires furniture with an audible electric current. Shift (2012), made in Istanbul, is a wool carpet of the world map with yellow seismic rings, cut and rejoined out of line. Remains of the Day uses burnt furniture remains.

She studied at Beirut University College, the Byam Shaw School of Art (1975 to 1979) and the Slade School of Fine Art (1979 to 1981). Solo exhibitions include Tate Britain, London (2000), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2014), and Fondazione Prada, Milan (2026). A survey opened at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015) and travelled to Tate Modern and Kiasma, Helsinki (2016). She was shortlisted for the Turner Prize (1995) and showed at Documenta 11 (2002) and the 51st Venice Biennale (2005). Her prizes include the Joan Miró Prize (2011) and the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture (2019). Collections include Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Centre Pompidou and the Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait City.