Modern Times

Art Front Gallery, Tokyo

January 31, 2024 - February 16, 2025

 

You can find the catalog at this link:

 

 

We are pleased to present Modern Times, a History of the Machine, the first solo exhibition of the year by mounir fatmi, marking a significant moment in his ongoing exploration of machines, language, and the mechanics of meaning.

 

Bringing together key works from his art, this exhibition features the video installation Modern Times, a History of the Machine, alongside the sculptures Calligraphy of Fire 04 and Machinery. These pieces examine the intersections of industry, automation, and language, questioning the ways in which technology shapes human experience.

 

At the heart of the exhibition is Modern Times, a History of the Machine, a hypnotic video composition that immerses viewers in a world of shifting geometric structures and rhythmic mechanical sounds. Against a black background, a complex white geometric network unfolds, its interwoven lines and rotating motifs evoking the intricate machinery of the industrial age. The composition is in constant transformation, driven by a pulsating soundtrack of mechanical rhythms and running motors, reinforcing the relentless, automated movement of modern industry. Fatmi’s visual language fuses Arab calligraphy, industrial design, and linguistic symbols, creating a space where mechanical structures and cultural inscriptions interact. The result is a dynamic interplay of meaning and movement, where the boundaries between art, technology, and language dissolve.

 

Calligraphy of Fire, a sculptural piece that transforms Arabic calligraphy into a dynamic, almost elemental structure, this work displays deconstructed sentences, with letters and words cut out from metal plates and held in place by clamps and vises. The precise yet fractured forms evoke both the beauty of calligraphy and its destruction, transforming language into a flickering, flame-like entity. The sculpture is also a tribute to the writer and artist Brion Gysin, whose work played with the abstraction of Arabic calligraphy and the deconstruction of language, known for inventing the "cut-up" technique. Fatmi’s approach echoes this process, treating the written word as both an aesthetic and conceptual medium.

 

Completing the exhibition is Machinery, a suspended installation composed of circular saw blades, arranged in an intricate, interlocking pattern reminiscent of a vast mechanical system. As in much of Fatmi’s work, this piece plays with the dual nature of objects: tools of construction can easily become tools of destruction. Here, the sharp, menacing blades—typically associated with industry, labor, and violence—are recontextualized within an artistic space, where their meaning is both reinforced and subverted. Most of the blades in Machinery are engraved with Arabic calligraphy. This juxtaposition creates a powerful visual and conceptual tension: the refined elegance of the inscriptions contrasts violently with the brutal, cutting-edge nature of the saws. The work invites viewers to contemplate the ambivalent nature of words—how they can be instruments of wisdom, but also tools of division and conflict.

 

Through this exhibition, mounir fatmi presents a thought-provoking exploration of the forces—mechanical, linguistic, and ideological—that shape our contemporary world. Modern Times, a History of the Machine is an invitation to navigate a world in flux, where technology, language, and meaning intersect in unexpected ways.

 

Art Front Gallery, January 2025