Modern Times

Department Of Art + Art History And Miami Beach Urban Studios

College Of Architecture +Arts, Florida International University

June 5th - August 28th, 2015

Curator: Alpesh Kantilal Patel

 

You can find the catalog at this link:

Amazon Edition

 

Miami Beach— FIU Department of Art + Art History and Miami Beach Urban Studios announce Modern Times: mounir fatmi, beginning June 5, 2015 and running for twelve weeks through the summer. The videos will be on view at FIU's Miami Beach Urban Studios Gallery, College of Architecture + Arts. This is the first presentation of fatmi's work in South Florida.

mounir fatmi is a prolific creator and exhibitor. When surveying his body of work what becomes evident is that he is very comfortable as a multi-media image-maker of exceedingly powerful messages. His, are discussions of ongoing conditions of global terror, violence and censorship. Make no mistake, it is certainly not banal to declare that these provocative artworks have an exceptional resonance and quality, lingering-long– triggering necessary considerations of what living-in these days entails. Designed as a sound sculpture and video installation, Modern Times– the exhibition– consists of a trio of profound narratives. Made as direct responses to a single mortal vendetta; the sometimes heartbreaking futility of revolutionary social change; and censorship that is born of fear– the works elucidate personal strength, vulnerability, resistance, and protest.

About the Exhibition

Like the three-overlapping circles of a Venn diagram the three displayed video works– Modern Times- A History of the Machine (2010), Sleep-Al Naim (2005-2012), and History Is Not Mine (2013)– illuminate the intersecting areas of current socio-political events, societal conventions-and-pressures, and our individual reactions to them. fatmi taps into the rich emotional spectrum of our provocative contemporary life. Commenting on events such as The Arab Spring, the ongoing universal call-to-murder the writer Salmon Rushdie, and the disillusionment of having been the target of censorship– these exact responses from us that can range from wonder and hopefulness, to deep doubts and dreads. No matter whether the artworks "document" the author who was cast into the shadows of a longstanding fatwa; or evoke a locomotive to nowhere with uncountable moving parts made from Arabic calligraphic writings and verses; or dramatize a response to dogma and suppression– all the videos in this triumvirate appear as challenges to pay-forward activation and dialogue.

 

Miami Beach, June 2015