• ArtistMona Hatoum
  • TitlePuzzled
  • Year of Origin2009
  • GenreInstallation
  • Technique and DimensionMixed media; dimensions variable
  • Erwerbungsjahr

© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Thomas Bruns

Looking at Mona Hatoum’s work Puzzled, we are struck by the gaps between the individual parts of the jigsaw puzzle – a reference to what is missing, to the lack of a whole. Hatoum’s art frequently addresses states of loss, displacement or being in-between – themes that can be related to her own experience of exile. Hatoum was in London when civil war broke out in Lebanon in 1975; unable to return to her homeland, she decided to remain in Great Britain as an immigrant. Viewing our reflection in the puzzle fragments, we are also confronted by questions related to the wholeness of our own selves and of the viewable space.