Fathi Hassan (, born 10 May 1957) is an Egyptian-born artist known for his installations involving the written word.

Life

Fathi Hassan was born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

in 1957 as the second son to a Nubian family. His father Hassan was Sudanese and his mother Fatma was from the Toshka Lakes region in southern Egypt. He attended the Kerabia school in Cairo, where he met the sculptor Ghaleb Khater.

Work

In 1979, Hassan received a grant from the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo and moved to

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

. He enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti in 1980 to study set design. He graduated in 1984 with a dissertation on the influence of African art in

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

. While he was studying and in the year after graduation, Hassan also worked as an actor and set designer at

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

(Radiotelevisione Italiana works) in Naples and Rome. In 1986, he moved to

Pesaro Pesaro (; ) is a (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Marche, capital of the province of Pesaro and Urbino, on the Adriatic Sea. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the ...

. In 1989 Hassan was the first artist of African heritage to be invited to the "Aperto" section of the 43rd Venice Biennale curated by

Dan Cameron Dan Cameron (born February 12, 1956, in Utica, New York) is an American contemporary art curator. He has served as senior curator for Next Wave Visual Art at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), an annual exhibition of emerging Brooklyn-based artists ...

and Giovanni Carandente. He has exhibited in numerous galleries in Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Egypt, and United States. Hassan's work often emphasizes power dynamics and the relationship between the oral and written word; drawing from his Nubian heritage, he places particular emphasis on the loss of language under the dominance of

colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

. Most of his scripts are based upon

kufic The Kufic script () is a style of Arabic script, that gained prominence early on as a preferred script for Quran transcription and architectural decoration, and it has since become a reference and an archetype for a number of other Arabic scripts ...

calligraphy Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...

, but remain deliberately illegible and impossible to decipher. In his video ''Blessed Nubia'' (2002) is an analysis of the original language of Nubia. Hassan has lived and worked in Italy since 1979, dividing his time between Rome,

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and

Fano Fano () is a city and ''comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the ''Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by pop ...

References

(2000). ''Fathi Hassan'' (exhibition catalogue). Milan: Charta Art Books. . * Mary Angela Schroth, Sandra Federici, Andrea Marchesini Reggiani (2000). ''TransAfricana: artisti contemporanei: Bologna, 15 gennaio–24 febbraio 2000: San Giorgio in Poggiale, Collezioni d'arte e di storia della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna'' (exhibition catalogue). Bologna: Lai-momo. Pages 47–49, 72–73.
full record
) * Roberto Bencivenga (2002). ''Fathi Hassan: la sostanza dell'anima = Spirit Matter'' (exhibition catalogue). Senigallia: Ed. Della Rovere. (no ISBN?). {{DEFAULTSORT:Hassan, Fathi Egyptian artists Egyptian people of Nubian descent Egyptian people of Sudanese descent 1957 births Living people Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli alumni Egyptian expatriates in Italy Italian people of Egyptian descent Italian contemporary artists Sudanese people of Nubian descent

Life

Work

References

Further reading