Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Lebanon, Beirut into a Palestinian family. In 1975, when the Lebanese war broke out, Hatoum was stranded in London where she attended the Byam Shaw School of Art followed by the Slade School of Art. The artist’s early pieces are very political and revolve around the feeling of one’s helplessness in the broader context of the power struggle between institutions. During the late eighties, Hatoum experienced an artistic transformation, as her politically charged performance pieces give space to large-scale installations that investigate a broader human experience. Hatoum’s installations have been compared to Duchamp’s readymades, as the artist often transforms familiar everyday objects into unfamiliar and even threatening sculptures. Hatoum currently resides in London and Berlin and so far she has participated in major exhibitions such as the Venice Biennial, the Turner Prize and Documenta. Her first solo exhibition was at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which was soon followed by shows in Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Tate Britain in London. Due to the artist’s commitment to human values, in 2011 she was granted the Joan Miró Prize.