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Measures of Distance

Mona Hatoum

1988 00:15:30 United KingdomEnglishColorStereo4:3Video

Description

In this video, the artist tries to overcome the effects of distance, and reflects on geography represented in exile due to war, and on the psychological distance represented in each one’s approach to her womanhood. The video beautifully weaves personal images and audio recordings of a very intimate nature, binding the personal with the political.

Reading aloud from letters sent by her mother in Beirut, Hatoum creates a visual montage reflecting her feelings of separation and isolation from her Palestinian family. The personal and political are inextricably bound in a narrative that explores personal and family identity against a backdrop of traumatic social rupture, exile and displacement.

This title is also available on Radical Closure.

About Mona Hatoum


Mona Hatoum is an artist living in Britain whose work around issues of fear, fascination, and the body takes the form of performance, video, installation, and photography. Hatoum was born in Lebanon and attended Beirut University College. Her graduate education in London was followed by artist-in-residencies at Western Front in Vancouver and broad international exhibitions, including major solo shows at Centre Pompidou in Paris and Arnolfini in Bristol.