Simone Fattal: between myth and memory

Simone Fattal (Damascus, 1942) was the winner of the 2024 Julio González Prize , and now the IVAM pays tribute to her with an exhibition that traces an entire career deeply marked by displacement and a work where mythology speaks to us, at the same time, of collective memory.

Under the title 'Suspension of Disbelief', in reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's idea of the unquestioning acceptance of fantastic elements in fiction, the exhibition proposes a journey that spans from 1999 to 2023, with a selection of 85 works that include sculptures, drawings and editorial works. This is Fattal's first exhibition in Spain and, curated by Nuria Enguita and Rafael Barber , it does not aim to be a retrospective, but rather a visual account of his life and artistic work.

Simone Fattal, raised in Lebanon, began her artistic career as a self-taught artist in Beirut in 1969, after completing her studies in philosophy in Paris. Her early works were marked by abstract landscapes of emblematic Lebanese sites, such as Mount Sannine and the Beirut waterfront. In 1973, she held her first solo exhibition at Gallery One in Beirut, where she continued to exhibit until the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War, which forced her to leave the country.

'La Montagne', Simone Fattal (1973). Barjeel Art Foundation

Moving to California, Fattal founded the publishing house The Post-Apollo Press, a turning point in her life. After years dedicated to publishing, the artist returned to art in 1988, focusing on sculpture. Through disciplines such as sculpture, painting and photography, Fattal has been inspired over the years by historical figures of the Mediterranean to create a cosmogony of bodies and architectures. Her sculptures, made in bronze, sandstone or clay, evoke literary elements such as Sumerian tales, Arabic epics or Sufi poetry and, often, recall ancient artifacts. Her work is nourished by mythology, embracing from ancient Egypt to Sunni mysticism and the Greco-Roman tradition, and gives shape to archetypal figures that integrate historical narratives in the current context. This vision is intensified by her deep link with literature, as the artist has stated: “I am very literary, my work is related to literature: motifs, arguments, ideas… It is a very intimate work, my own, very individual, it comes from my current of thought. If I am thinking of a Ulysses, I create a Ulysses, it is an interior dialogue.”

Abdel Wahab, Simone Fattal (2006). Cortesia de Sharjah Art Foundation Collection

The exhibition at the IVAM is organized into three spaces, starting with Fattal's editorial works, which reveal his passion for literature and narrative. The tour continues with his sculptures, where ceramics become a vehicle to explore the limits of figuration. In the final section, the exhibition concludes with an installation of large-format drawings, where the artist deploys a gestural and abstract language. In his drawings, Fattal creates a "text" without letters or punctuation, formed solely by gestures, ink drips and water.

One of the most outstanding aspects of Fattal's production is his deep bond with antiquity, which manifests itself as a central axis in his work. His sculptures are conceived as visual documents that perpetuate and guard the collective memory of human civilizations. This dialogue with the past allows him to capture the spirit of a time and space that, despite being distant, is given new meaning in the present. In Fattal's own words, "art serves so that people do not forget, to remember". His sculptures and drawings are not just objects, but visual documents that speak to us about the human condition, migration, war and identity.

Simone Fattal a l'IVAM. © Miguel Lorenzo