London's Barbican Centre has become the stage for a breathtaking artistic duel, where the raw, political energy of Mona Hatoum meets the timeless, existential forms of Alberto Giacometti. This is not a simple side-by-side display; it is a deeply intelligent and visceral conversation between two giants of their respective eras.
The curatorial genius of the exhibition lies in its refusal to draw lazy comparisons. Instead of forcing parallels, it allows the artists' works to interrogate each other across the decades. You see it in the way Hatoum's Impenetrable (2009)—a haunting, suspended cube made from sharp barbed wire—echoes and violently subverts the delicate, skeletal frames of Giacometti's famous walking figures. One evokes human fragility, the other, the dangerous barriers that contain it.
A Dialogue of Tension and Form
The exhibition is masterfully arranged across a series of rooms, each pairing creating a new spark of meaning. A classic Giacometti bust, isolated and gaunt, is confronted by Hatoum's Projection (2018)—a large-scale orb made from the steel remnants of riot shields, reflecting the viewer and the room in a disconcerting, fragmented way. The personal alienation of the former meets the collective, political unease of the latter.
Hatoum's unsettling domestic objects, like a cheese grater that becomes a wheelchair or a child's cot transformed into a cage, find a strange kinship with Giacometti's distorted, warped sculptures. Both artists share a profound interest in the body—not as a whole, but as a site of trauma, memory, and vulnerability.
An Unmissable Sensory Experience
This is an exhibition that demands to be felt as much as seen. The cool, imposing presence of Giacometti's bronze figures is disrupted by the palpable tension in Hatoum's installations. You feel a sense of awe, but also of unease, as you navigate the space between these powerful works.
For anyone with an interest in modern or contemporary art, this show is an absolute essential. It is a rare opportunity to witness not just a collection of masterpieces, but a truly curatorial masterpiece in itself—a bold, thought-provoking, and unforgettable dialogue that recontextualises both artists for a new generation.
'Mona Hatoum: Encounters with Giacometti' is on at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, until 5 January 2026.
