Lot 519: m - Mounir Fatmi , Moroccan B. 1970 Save Manhattan books, rubber bands and wood

books, rubber bands and wood

measurements note 68.5 by 150 by 90cm.; 27 by 59 1/8 by 35 1/3 in.

New York, The Metropolitan Pavilion, LA Art in New York , 2007

Executed in 2006-2007, this work is number 3 from an edition of 6.
There is more to Mounir Fatmi's 'Save Manhattan', 2006-07, than meets the eye - both literally and metaphorically. At first, we would appear to be looking at a relatively minimalist and random collection of books. What is less apparent, however, is the light that shines on these objects and the shadow it casts. Looking more closely we see the shadow of the pre-9/11 New York skyline, complete with the towers of the World Trade Centre. The effect is both nostalgic and, as always with nostalgia, beguilingly alluring in its reconstitution of a pre-traumatic moment in recent world history. The shadow of the World Trade Center still falls upon our current political context, its absence an uncanny presence in the globalized uncertainties that mark current affairs. In this context, Fatmi's Save Manhattan becomes both a poignant eulogy to the now-absent World Trade Centre towers and that most iconic signifier of glamorousness: the New York skyline. It would seem that Fatmi is looking to the past - in all its imminent contemporary presence - for answers to our current international quandaries. And in this context, Save Manhattan is a timely incitement for us to begin a process of rebuilding and rejuvenation - both on a political and cultural level.