Simone Fattal: A Breeze Over the Mediterranean

The multicultural city of Pompeii and its ruins form the basis for Fattal's sculptural series investigating the history of displacement

Over the last 50 years, Lebanese American artist Simone Fattal's (born 1942) multifaceted practice has explored the impact of displacement as well as the episteme of archeology and mythology, drawing from a range of sources including war narratives, landscape painting, ancient history and poetry. Inspired by her visit to the archeological sites of Pompeii, Fattal debuts a new body of sculpture and ceramics blending history with memory, grappling with the loss of time while revealing its repetitions. Says Fattal of Pompeii's significance, "the place has not been destroyed by time, but by a moment ... there are fragments of all periods mingled together ... Egypt is present, but also Syria and Asia Minor. But with all this diversity and differences, it seems that all lived together in harmony."