Mona Hatoum's Interior Landscapes at Palazzo Querini Stampalia

Behind the baggage carousel at Venice’s Marco Polo Airport was a large banner for Interior Landscapes an exhibit of the work of Mona Hatoum at the Palazzo Querini Stampalia. I will never forget the experience of seeing Mona Hatoum’s exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York in 1997 and was very excited that not only was I here in Venice for the 53rd Biennale de Venezia, but I would also be able to see the work by one of my favorite artists. I love the simplicity, the beauty, and the ephemeral quality of Hatoum's work juxtaposed against the quiet, disturbing and often hidden symbolism.

Hatoum’s work deals with issues of uncertainty, displacement and conflict, themes that are close and personal to her life and experience. Born in Beirut to Palestinian parents, Hatoum, found herself stranded in London during the Lebanese civil war in the mid-70’s and now divides her time between London and Berlin.

Mona Hatoum, Hot Spot III, 2009
Interior Landscapes, Pallazo Querini Stampalia
Stainless steel and neon tube, 234 x 223 x 223 cm

Interior Landscapes is part of an ongoing series of projects at the Querini that focus on the relationship between historic and contemporary art; between the past that needs to be preserved and the future that is yet to be planned. This series is fitting placed within the walls of this remarkable institution that is housed in the former Querini Stampalia residence that has received two architectural interventions first by Carlo Scarpa in the 60's and more recently by Mario Botta.

Carlo Scarpa, 1st Floor Gallery
Pallazo Querini Stampalia

Venice, IT

Hatoum’s Cube greets the visitor entering the museum. This work is part of her on-going series of works consisting of grids, cages and gratings that are architectonic in design and represent confinement, imprisonment, enclosure and violence.

Mona Hatoum, Cube, 2006
Interior Landscape, Pallazo Querini Stampalia
mild steel, 174 x 174 x 174 cm

Impenetrable, appears to float in the gallery space. It is a gorgeous work. This floating cube is ghost like, but at the same time has a physicality that possesses the space. However, on close inspection this cube which appears so delicate from a distance actually consists of barbed wire rods; juxtaposing notions of magic, wonder, and fragility with those of danger and fear.

Mona Hatoum, Impenetrable, 2009

Interior Landscape, Pallazo Querini Stampalia
black finished steel, fishing line 300 x 300 x 300 cm

Similarly ephemeral and disturbing is Hair grid with knots. Hatoum wove human hair into an orderly and controlled grid pattern that floats against the gallery wall.

Mona Hatoum, Hair grid with knots, 2006

Interior Landscape, Pallazo Querini Stampalia
human hair, hair spray, 30 x 20 cm

The installation, Interior Landscape, brings together two themes that run throughout this exhibition, the grid and historic Palestinian map imagery. This cell-like room consists of a barbed wire bed, a pillow on which the map is embroidered, and numerous other objects all with the historic map of Palestine impressed on them.

Mona Hatoum, Interior Landscape (detail), 2008

Interior Landscape, Pallazo Querini Stampalia
Steel bed

Mona Hatoum, Interior Landscape, 2008

Interior Landscape, Pallazo Querini Stampalia
Steel bed, pillow, capelli human hair, table, cardboard tray, cut-up map, wire hanger

In the corner of this instalation sits Keffieh, a wooden chair adorned with what appears to be a traditional Arab headscarf, however, on closer examination the traditional patterning has been embroidered with human hair. This installation portrays the contradictions found in Palestine today, the dreams and aspirations contrasted against the harsh realities the Palistinian people face.

Mona Hatoum, Keffieh, 1993-1999

Interior Landscape, Pallazo Querini Stampalia
human hair, cotton fabric, 120 x 120 cm

Hidden among and juxtaposed against the prominent works by Giovanni Bellini, Antonio Canova, Giuseppe Jappelli, Pietro Longhi, Jacopa Palma il Vecchio, Sebastiano Ricci , Bernardo Strozzi, and Giambattista Tiepolo in the second floor galleries are works such as Hair Necklace and Natura morta by Mona Hatoum. At first glance Hair Necklace looks like a piece of precious jewelry but on closer examination something feels not quite right as you realize this string of beads is made of human hair. Natura Morta similarly appears to fit within the gallery setting. I first passed by thinking it was a cabinet filled with colourful, mirrored glass fruit; but instead on closere examination the cabinet is filled with jewel-like glass formed in the shape of hand grenades.

Mona Hatoum, Hair necklace, 1995

Interior Landscape, Pallazo Querini Stampalia
human hair, leather bust, wood, 27 x 21 16 cm

Mona Hatoum, Interior Landscapes runs through September 20, 2009 at the Palazzo Querini Stampalia in Venice, IT. The Croatian exhibition, Elaborazione pittorica della sensibilita e della realta one of the Collateral Events of the 53rd Biennale di Venezia is also on view in the 1st Floor galleries through November 22, 2009.