Part archive and part archaeological experiment, Mounir Fatmi’s work draws on his early experiences of a flea market in Tangier. Using defunct antenna cables, typewriters, and VHS tapes, he exploits the finite lifespan of technology and consumer goods to question the limits of memory and communication. Assembled in arrangements that twist the hegemonic systems of architecture, language, and machine—systems that separately and together encode our lives—his sculptures and installations reveal the instability behind a façade of permanence. Exposing the fragile reality of these systems and reducing them to residue, Fatmi offers a glimpse what might lie beyond their illusions.
Robert Preece: You recently showed Skyline (2007) and The Monuments (2008–09) at the 2026 Chengdu Biennial, “Pulse of Life.” Skyline is made with VHS tapes, and The Monuments consists of 175 porcelain hardhats inscribed with the names of influential Western thinkers whose “theories, systems, critiques, and ideological structures” have, as you say, built the contemporary world. How did you choose these installations, and what is the connection between them?
Mounir Fatmi: The selection was made in close collaboration with curator Guillaume de Sardes. The two works naturally complement each other. I was particularly keen to show Skyline, because it questions architecture as a space of protection and intimacy. The VHS tapes evoke what is hidden and protected, much like the interior of a building. The work also points to the fragility of architecture, something that was tragically revealed on 9/ 11. . .
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