Mona Hatoum, all of a quiver, 2022, aluminium square tubes, steel hinges, electric motor and cable, H862 x W385 x D290 cm, installation view, Kesselhaus, KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2022-23). Photo: Jens Ziehe. © Mona Hatoum.
Mona Hatoum has conceived Over, under and in between as a site-specific project for Fondazione Prada in Milan. The presentation responds to the instability of the present moment and to the vulnerability of human existence. Hatoum designed the project in direct relation to the Cisterna building, a former industrial structure that once housed tanks and silos for alcohol production.
The project consists of three installations that draw on recurring elements in Hatoum’s practice: the web, the map, and the grid. Their placement activates the architecture of the Cisterna and engages the visitor’s bodily perception. Each work addresses states of instability, exposure, and risk, with varying emotional intensity and material presence.
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In the entrance space, Hatoum suspends a large spider’s web formed from hand-blown transparent glass spheres threaded on wires. The installation hangs overhead, creating a fragile yet expansive structure. Hatoum has returned to the web motif for decades to address entrapment, neglect, intimacy, and connection. She describes the form as both threatening and protective, suggesting enclosure while offering shelter. The glass spheres recall dew drops through their delicacy and reflective surface, while their arrangement suggests a constellation and points to interdependence.
The central room features a field of translucent red glass balls arranged on the concrete floor to form a map of the continents. The artist omits political and geographic borders, defining only land masses. More than thirty thousand loose glass spheres create an unstable surface, which Hatoum describes as an undefined territory exposed to external disruption. The work references the act of mapping as a charged process shaped by systems of power.
Hatoum selected the Gall–Peters projection for this work in place of the Mercator projection. This choice corrects distortions in relative scale that traditionally reduce regions such as Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. Austrian architect and theorist Theo Deutinger addresses this distinction in the exhibition publication, noting that a globe resists flattening, folding, and containment, while a map functions as a peeled surface laid flat.
The final space houses all of a quiver, a kinetic installation consisting of a gridded metal structure placed on the floor and activated by a motor. The structure oscillates between collapse and re-erection, accompanied by creaking and clanking sounds. Rows of cubes sway and buckle, evoking a bodily presence under strain. The work reflects Hatoum’s engagement with Minimalist form while transforming modular geometry into an animate system rooted in physical sensation.
The cyclical action of all of a quiver sustains a condition of suspension between opposing states such as construction and destruction or balance and failure.
Over, under and in between will be on view at Fondazione Prada, Milan, from January 29 to November 9. 2026.
