Mona Hatoum, Nature morte aux grenades, 2006-2007 (detail)
"Alongside the exhibition Love Letters in War and Peace the MSK presents an installation by Mona Hatoum. As much as the exhibition demonstrates the essence of art in messages of desire and affection between loved ones, Close Quarters (2014) addresses the complexity of relation. Hatoum’s installation includes earlier works, such as Incommunicado (1993), Quarters (1996), Grater Divide (2002), Nature Morte with Grenades (2006-7), and Daybed (2008). Mainly consisting of a large metal paravent and iron beds, sometimes shaped as household tools, such as a grader, the collection of works can be read as referring to the cycle of life, the bed being the space of intimacy, love, sleep, sexuality, birth, disease and death—of calm and peace but also of violence and war. Seen together, the works in Close Quarters allude to lives in a homely and safe environment as well as to lives spent in conflict zones, hospital and imprisonment, as can be sensed from the glass grenades strewn on the floor and the slowly, almost imperceptibly, turning barbed wire in 5RPM (2008) that closes off the entrance to the installation."
Mona Hatoum. Close Quarters
08.11.2014 - 22.02.2015
Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium