Mona Hatoum. Over, under and in between
Fondazione Prada, Milan
From January 29 until November 9, 2026
Entering the Cisterna at Fondazione Prada for Over, under and in between means accepting a condition of instability from the very first step. Mona Hatoum reverses roles: she does not ask the viewer to observe, but to expose themselves—to emptiness, to fragility, to that subtle tension that runs through the present and renders it perpetually precarious. Conceived specifically for the Milanese space, the project does not simply occupy the industrial architecture of the former distillery; it reactivates it as a sensitive organism. The exhibition unfolds through three autonomous yet deeply interconnected installations, each revolving around recurring motifs in Hatoum’s vocabulary: the web, the map, and the grid. Three structures that, despite their apparent formal minimalism, are charged with emotional, political, and symbolic implications. In the entrance space, a vast suspended web of hand-blown glass spheres greets the visitor from above. The initial response is one of wonder: light passes through the glass, making it shimmer and multiply reflections. But it takes little for this beauty to shift into unease. The web, an inherently ambivalent symbol, is at once refuge and trap, protection and threat. Hatoum captures its contradictory nature, making visible that invisible network of bonds, fears, and dependencies that permeates both private and collective life. It is impossible not to feel part of this entanglement.
“A web can be seen as a looming net which suggests oppressive entrapment, while also providing a home or a place of safety. To me, the large web overhead also has poetic, even cosmic significance. The beautiful, delicate glass spheres are an apt reference to dew drops, evoking their fragility and sparkling quality. They also resemble a celestial constellation. I personally like to see it as an allusion to the interconnectedness of all things.”
The central room marks a radical change in register. The floor is occupied by a world map composed of thousands of red glass spheres, loose and unfixed. Continents appear as unstable outlines, deliberately stripped of political borders. The choice of the Gall–Peters projection is not a technical detail but a quiet political gesture: questioning visual hierarchies means exposing the power structures embedded in representations that claim to be objective. Here, the world is not a solid entity, but a mobile surface, vulnerable to external forces. The final room is dominated by all of a quiver, a monumental metal structure that slowly oscillates, like a body suspended between resistance and collapse. Its cyclical movement, accompanied by metallic sounds, generates a physical tension that directly engages the viewer. The grid—traditionally a symbol of order and rationality—becomes unstable, vulnerable, almost alive. Hatoum transforms a minimalist language into an emotional experience, where architecture seems to breathe, tremble, and lose its balance. The exhibition invites us to embrace instability, to recognize fragility as a permanent condition. It demands attention, time, and listening—and in doing so, offers a powerful and lucid reflection on how we inhabit the world today.
For further information Fondazioneprada.org.
