Mona Hatoum and the fragile bodies of biennials and fairs
Published on 08/28/2026 at 13:10 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Mona Hatoum has built an international presence where large-scale installations translate political precarity into physical tension for the viewer. Her recent projects in Venice, Milan and Jeju show how carefully calibrated materials can hold conflict, memory and fragility in suspension.
Biennials and collateral pavilions
At the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Mona Hatoum contributes to the collateral exhibition TURANDOT: To the Daughters of the East at ACP - Palazzo Franchetti in Venice, presented by Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art. The show, running from May 9 to October 31, 2026, brings together eleven women artists from Central Asia and broader Eastern regions to reflect on histories of power and representation.
Within this context Hatoum’s work extends her long-standing engagement with displacement and contested geographies. The Venice project sits alongside her broader biennial trajectory, including her participation announced for Manifesta 16 Ruhr, where the nomadic European biennial will activate decommissioned modernist churches across Bochum, Essen, Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen from June 21 to October 4, 2026. The spread of venues underscores how Hatoum’s practice thrives in spaces marked by transformation and re-use.
Institutional shows framing fragility
Parallel to these biennial commitments, Fondazione Prada in Milan devotes its Cisterna building to Hatoum’s site-specific project Over, under and in between, on view from January 29 to November 9, 2026. The presentation consists of three large installations that turn the industrial shell of a former distillery into a kind of testing ground for bodily balance and perceptual security.
Reports describe hundreds of hand-blown glass spheres hovering overhead while tens of thousands of similar spheres form a world map underfoot, inviting viewers to walk across an image of global entanglement that might shatter at any moment. A large kinetic aluminium lattice, titled All of a Quiver, repeatedly collapses and re-erects itself, recalling skeletal remnants of buildings and scaffolding in cities marked by conflict and construction. Together, these works translate geopolitical instability into immediate corporeal unease.
All news and background on Mona Hatoum
For further coverage of Mona Hatoum’s exhibitions, biennial contributions and institutional projects, the AD HOC NEWS archive offers additional reports and market context.
The work core and materials
Hatoum’s signature installations often hinge on modest materials pushed to precarious limits: concrete masses suspended in mid-air, tangled rebar, barbed wire grids or domestic furniture rendered unusable. At Podo Museum on Jeju Island, for instance, she shows a 1.6-ton concrete block and rebar assembly hanging in space, serene at first glance yet loaded with the threat of collapse. The work condenses her biography as a Palestinian born in Beirut into an object that carries both shelter and ruin.
Where the artist stands now
Overall, Hatoum’s current institutional focus lies in long-running projects such as Over, under and in between at Fondazione Prada, the Jeju exhibition We, Such Fragile Beings and collateral and biennial appearances in Venice and Ruhr, rather than short-term fair presentations.
Key facts on Mona Hatoum
- Artist: Mona Hatoum
- Medium / Genre: Installation and sculpture with conceptual focus
- Born: 1952, Beirut, Lebanon
- Place(s) of practice: Studio practice based between London and Berlin, in addition to extensive international project work
- Active since: Early 1980s, with performance and video works preceding later large-scale installations
- Key work groups: Homebound, Light Sentence, Impenetrable, Over, under and in between
- Current/last exhibition: Over, under and in between, Fondazione Prada, Milan, January 29 – November 9, 2026
- Major collections: Tate (London), MoMA (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Hamburger Bahnhof - National Gallery of the Present (Berlin)
- Awards: Hamburger Bahnhof Lifetime Achievement Award 2026
- Next date: Engagements at Venice Biennale 61st edition and Manifesta 16 Ruhr within the broader 2026 biennial calendar
Frequently asked questions about Mona Hatoum
Where can I currently experience Mona Hatoum’s large-scale installations?
In 2026 Hatoum’s site-specific project Over, under and in between occupies Fondazione Prada’s Cisterna building in Milan, while her work also appears in the thematic group exhibition We, Such Fragile Beings at Podo Museum on Jeju Island.
How is Mona Hatoum involved in the 61st Venice Biennale?
Hatoum participates in the collateral exhibition TURANDOT: To the Daughters of the East at ACP - Palazzo Franchetti, presented by Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, which runs alongside the main Biennale program in Venice in 2026.
What characterizes Mona Hatoum’s contribution to Manifesta 16 Ruhr?
Manifesta 16 Ruhr lists Hatoum among its artists for a program spread across twelve decommissioned modernist churches in Bochum, Essen, Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen, highlighting her interest in sites marked by social and architectural transition.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
