Lot 109: Mounir Fatmi (Morrocan, b. 1970)

Mounir Fatmi (Morrocan, b. 1970)
The Machinery
signed, dated and numbered 'fatmi mounir, 2009, 2/5' (on the back of the work)
glycero black paint on steel
Diameter: 31½in. (80cm.)
Executed in 2009, this is number two from a series of five

This lot offered for sale is subject to a 5% import duty on the importation value levied at the time of collection/shipment within the UAE.
Born in Tangier, but a longtime resident of Paris, Mounir Fatmi works in a variety of media, including installation, video, painting and drawing. Running through his work is Fatmi's sharp wit, using unusual materials and pairing together unlikely concepts. In his own words, he seeks to create "visual spaces and linguistic games that aim to free the view from their preconceptions of politics and religion, and allows them to contemplate these and other subjects in new ways" (Mounir Fatmi, cited in Hossein Amirsadeghi, New Vision, London, 2009, p.128). The messages and morals are always ambiguous, representing the undefined game of give-and-take between East and West. In the present work classic Arabic calligraphy with the motto 'God is Beautiful, He loves Beauty' is luxuriously painted onto a steel blade from a circular saw. This engenders multiple readings, with themes of modernity, mass production and destruction as a counterpoint to refinement, religion and precision.