Mounir Fatmi's 'Seeing Is Believing' at Galerie Hussenot

Mounir Fatmi's exhibition 'Seeing Is Believing' at Galerie Hussenot in Paris (January 16 – February 20, 2010) questions the reliability of visual perception. The artist, who insists on lowercase spelling, presents works as camouflages and equations, weaving art history and human history into a vast writing project. Using obsolete materials like coaxial cable and VHS tapes, Fatmi creates a Pietà inspired by Michelangelo and a Black Square referencing Malevich. 'Géographie dynamique de l'histoire' pairs art 'isms' with political 'isms,' while the video 'Suprematism for Self-defense' features black dots representing words redacted by the FBI in reports on the Black Panthers. Ceramic hard hats inscribed with philosophers' names hang as 'Monuments.' A hand-drawn mosque plan is part of an interactive installation linking mosque and museum construction in Arab countries. Circular saws covered in Quranic calligraphy become sharp and violent. The photo series 'Casse-tête pour musulman modéré' shows a black Rubik's cube with a white stripe, evoking the Kaaba. 'Assassins' features colorful hookahs referencing Baudelaire's 'Artificial Paradises,' contrasting with the otherwise black-and-white show. A synthetic image of Salman Rushdie sleeping was intended as a remake of Warhol's 'Sleep' but abandoned when the digital Rushdie began to resemble Stanley Kubrick.