Mona Hatoum: Over, Under and in Between

The exhibition “Over, Under and In Between” presents a site-specific project by Mona Hatoum developed for the Cisterna building at Fondazione Prada. The three-part installation engages with the architecture of the former distillery tanks, activating the height and spatial configuration of its rooms through works that explore instability, vulnerability and interconnectedness.

Each installation centres on recurring elements in Hatoum’s practice: the web, the map and the grid. In the entrance space, a suspended web composed of hand-blown glass spheres threaded on wires forms a large overhead constellation. The delicate structure evokes both entrapment and protection, reflecting Hatoum’s long-standing interest in the ambivalent symbolism of networks and connections.

In the central room, more than thirty thousand translucent red glass spheres are arranged across the floor to outline a world map. The continents are delineated without political borders, using the Gall–Peters projection rather than the Mercator model in order to address historical distortions in the representation of global geography.

The final installation, “all of a quiver”, consists of a tall, motorised grid structure formed by stacked metal cubes. The installation slowly oscillates between collapse and re-erection, producing metallic sounds as it moves. Through this cyclical motion, the work reflects on states of precarious balance and the tension between construction and collapse, stability and fragility.