Venice Biennale, 3 June 2011 (my first Biennale) - I entered the dark space of the Saudi Arabian Pavilion and there it is - the “Black Arch” of Raja and Shadia Alem hits you at once. The sisters, who grew up in Mecca in the 1970s and now live in Paris, stun visitors with a huge mirror in the shape of Earth; the back of the mirror is off course black. In front of it is a carpet of more than 1,400 steel balls from which emerges a modern Ka’aba-like cube.
I take a step back, take a deep breath, watch and hear... To the right of the installation a projection shows a church and Venetian images, and you hear prayers and voices in Italian. Back to near darkness which is followed by another projection of waves at the centre. Again near darkness, then a projection to the left in which you see a mosque and hear prayers and voices in Arabic. Wow!
“Black Arch”, by Raja and Shadia Alem, Saudi Arabia pavilion
Power women Raja and Shadia explain, “Black Arch is about two visions of the world and of two cities, Mecca and Venice, of two cultures that meet”. They tell me in an interview: “Our work is about East and West, man and woman. There are barriers. But we carry all cultures in us. This breaks barriers. Our work makes you feel that you are part of one universe.” So much black in your work, why? Raja answers: “I grew up aware of the physical presence of black all around, of the black silhouettes of Saudi women, the black cloth of the al-Ka’aba and the black stone”.
I ask them if they plan to exhibit their work in Saudi Arabia after the premiere in Venice. “Inshallah”, is the answer with a charming smile. I doubt this would be possible as long as the country is under control of the fundamentalist Wahabi brand of Islam. The Saudi religious police (real name: “The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices”) would not tolerate any projection of a church with the sound of Christian prayers. I also doubt they would appreciate the aesthetics of a modern Ka’aba.
Ironically, and this shows the political schizophrenia in Saudi Arabia, the exhibition was financed by four Saudi institutions and firms, among them: The almighty state-controlled oil firm Aramco and – now hold your breath again – the Ministry of Culture and Information. Meanwhile, Saudis will have to travel to Venice if they want to see and feel this amazing work of art.
I cannot but hope that one day Saudi Arabia will have on its soil a museum of modern art. A centre piece of its permanent exhibition should be the “Black Arch”. Saudis can be proud of it. By the anachronistic religious police would be a footnote of the very dark past.
In the nearby pavilion of the United Arab Emirates I am welcomed by a smiling Lateefa Ben Maktoum. Dressed and veiled in black she explains her photo exhibition. Two pictures strike me as sad and critical of the dramatic sociological changes that occurred in Dubai during the past decades. In one picture a faceless and veiled woman looks down against the background of Dubai’s tower buildings. All in a fake green. The other picture shows a picture of a veiled woman with a rather disturbing look in her face. She is standing on wetland facing the Gulf Sea, holding a suitcase and looking towards the horizon. She just wants to flee, as far away and as fast away as possible.
“The last Look”, by Lateefa Ben Maktoum, UAE pavilion
Left: Lateefa watching... (she allows photos only without her face)
“Reflecting”, by Lateefa Ben Maktoum, UAE pavilion
Left: Lateefa watching... (she allows photos only without her face)
It does feel quite lonely to live among towers of glass and steel in the middle of the desert. Does not fit. Will never fit. I would want to flee – into a surreal green world that exists only in fantasies or far away on a boat. But Lateefa strikes back: “I do not see the figures in my images as being lonely. I see them as being captured in a solitary moment of thought. They reflect on their surroundings and the changes that they witness happening around them.” She is a bit uncomfortable with my critical view; I accept her softer approach.
Noteworthy is that Lateefa contributed to the UAE’s art scene by founding Tashkeel, a public studio providing specialist facilities for artists and designers to work together. “An artist needs feedback to grow,” she argues. Check the website of the UAE pavilion and an interview with Lateefa.
In the same pavilion Reem al-Ghaith exhibits her installation about construction in Dubai. A bit chaotic, reflecting the wild construction boom leading the Dubai’s financial crisis in 2008. It is similar to the installation “What’s left of her Land” shown at the Sharjah Biennale in 2009. The official brochure says, “The history, traditions and changing landscape of Dubai and the UAE serve as continuous inspiration to her work... Her pieces ... serve as a form of documentary or visual archive for future generations to bear witness to the changes this country has undergone”.
Reem al-Ghaith, “What’s left of her Land”, UAE pavilion
The third UAE artist is Abdullah al-Saadi, who observes and contemplates and picks on details. His work centers on “Naked Sweet Potatoes”, which is also the title of his art. Abdullah walked on foot across the desert of the UAE and Oman accompanied by a dog and a donkey. He documented his journey with water colours, a diary, photographs, short films and engravings of sweet potatoes on stones. The latter he describes as “studies of the male and female forms of sweet potatoes”.
Abdullah al-Saadi, “Naked Sweet Potatoes”, UAE pavilion
Very creative and amusing observations, indeed. Abdullah is no fan of the UAE’s steel and glass towers. He lives in the mountainous region of Khorfakan on the Gulf of Oman. He just loves nature. And I love his work.
To the Iraqi pavilion where six very talented artists interpret the theme of water. Title: “Wounded Water”. And wounded is Iraq and its people, indeed. Remember the ecological disaster former dictator Saddam Hussein created in the southern marshlands by draining them. At the entrance of the pavilion, Walid Siti exhibits on the wall in red: A river-like wound goes from one end to the other in a bloodied landscape in Iraq. The interview he gave me about his art and Iraq is touching.
Walid Sati’s river in bloodied landscape in Iraq
Azad Nanakeli, another Iraqi Kurdish artist, shows a video with a man pouring water over his head. His opposite is himself being polluted by red and yellow toxins.
Azad Nanakeli’s “destneuj (purification)", Iraqi pavilion
The Egyptian pavilion focuses on Ahmed Basiony, an artist and hero of the Egyptian revolution that toppled dictator Hosny Mubarak early 2011. Ahmed was among the first who marched in Cairo's Tahrir Square. He had his camera with him. The video exhibition shows simultaneously footage he took and news reports. This is a homage to Ahmed who was killed at the age of 33 by a sniper in Cairo on January 28, 2011. He unfortunately did not live to experience real freedom in Egypt. But he and all who gave their lives for Egypt will never be forgotten.
From the brochure about Ahmed Basiony, Egypt pavilion
“The Future of a Promise” is the Biennale’s largest pan-Arab exhibition of contemporary art. Arabs from many states exhibit about 25 works – installations, performances, photography, videos and sculpture art. My favorite is Ziad Abillama’s “Untitled (Arabes)”, a post with signs in all directions showing where Arabs may sail from? The Lebanese artists provokes in Italy where the government is claiming the country is being invaded by Arabs via the island of Lampedusa.
Ziad Abillama’s “Untitled (Arabes)”
Unfortunately I was not able to visit the Syrian pavilion in which Syrian and Italian artists exhibited under the motto "Evolution"- to identify contradiction between subjectivity (desires) and objectivity (daily life). Watch this video. Note that there is a controversy over the fact that most artists and all curators are non-Syrians.
Now don’t be shocked, but when I mean in the title of this blog “Arab region” I include Israel. Its pavilion is amazing – only works of Sigalit Landau on water and peace in a trouble region. My favorite is the “Salt Crystal Fishing Net”. She bought the net from Jaffa fishermen and dipped it in Dead Sea water. The result is bundle of white mass with crystal reflection. She writes in her brochure, “These fishing nets catch magnificent crystals, beautiful but sterile. A fishing net evokes fertility and life, but there it is caked in deadly amount of salt”.
Now don’t be shocked, but when I mean in the title of this blog “Arab region” I include Israel. Its pavilion is amazing – only works of Sigalit Landau on water and peace in a trouble region. My favorite is the “Salt Crystal Fishing Net”. She bought the net from Jaffa fishermen and dipped it in Dead Sea water. The result is bundle of white mass with crystal reflection. She writes in her brochure, “These fishing nets catch magnificent crystals, beautiful but sterile. A fishing net evokes fertility and life, but there it is caked in deadly amount of salt”.
Sigalit Landau, “Salt Crystal Fishing Net”, Israeli pavilion
Another favorite is her video installation “Laces” in which a girl under a negotiating table binds negotiators together with the laces of their shoes. Sigalit Landau writes, “The negotiating table is not theater or fiction, but rather an engagement, a dream, a lament for the future. This future is the life of the child who appears on the laptop-computer screens”. The slogan of the Israeli Pavilion is “One man’s floor in another man’s feelings”.
Lebanon and Bahrain cancelled last minute. A shame for the governments of these two countries. The Lebanese pavilion was to be titled "Lebanon As a State of Mind". Its curator, George Rabbah, told Art Info in an interview that the cancellation had nothing to do with the fact that Lebanon was without a functioning government for months till mid June 2011. He claims: "(The opposition came) from a lot of the actors of the Lebanese art scene. I found out at some point that the Lebanese scene is partly something that has to do with power positions. There are power centers that control access to funds, etc., and also access to patrons of art because they know them, in a way. I don't want to sound too paranoid, but I'm not the only one that's shocked".
In Bahrain authorities in 2011 have been trying to crush a pro-democracy movement - so no time to think about art. Reminder: In 2010, Bahrain won the Golden Lion for best national participation at that year's Architecture Biennale with a wonderful exhibition of original fishermen huts.
A few lines about the Venice Biennale which was launched in 1895: Since then countries offer their artists a showcase in pavilions funded by government institutions, firms and/or private donors. 89 national pavilions opened their doors in Venice in 2011, the highest number ever. Germany won in 2011 the Biennale’s highest honor, the Golden Lion for best national contribution. The work is by Christoph Schlingensief, the German artist who died in August 2010. His "Church of Fear" installation is a massive critique against society and the Church.
It was my first Biennale, and it was fascinating because it saw how art is very political - and not only in the Arab region. Artists have been playing a crucial role in countries under dictatorships (softly destabilizing them), and they helped topple dictators (remember Ahmed Basiony). Arabs can be proud of most of the work exhibited in Venice in 2011, the year of Arab democracy on the rise. My dream is that one day Palestinians and Israelis exhibit together in Venice, and that Arab artists can exhibit anything they wish in every Arab state. No more fear, no censorship and no taboos.
NB: Impossible to write about art from the Arab region at the mother of Biennales without visiting the US and Iranian pavilions.
Sigalit Landau, video installation “Laces”, Israeli pavilion
Lebanon and Bahrain cancelled last minute. A shame for the governments of these two countries. The Lebanese pavilion was to be titled "Lebanon As a State of Mind". Its curator, George Rabbah, told Art Info in an interview that the cancellation had nothing to do with the fact that Lebanon was without a functioning government for months till mid June 2011. He claims: "(The opposition came) from a lot of the actors of the Lebanese art scene. I found out at some point that the Lebanese scene is partly something that has to do with power positions. There are power centers that control access to funds, etc., and also access to patrons of art because they know them, in a way. I don't want to sound too paranoid, but I'm not the only one that's shocked".
In Bahrain authorities in 2011 have been trying to crush a pro-democracy movement - so no time to think about art. Reminder: In 2010, Bahrain won the Golden Lion for best national participation at that year's Architecture Biennale with a wonderful exhibition of original fishermen huts.
A few lines about the Venice Biennale which was launched in 1895: Since then countries offer their artists a showcase in pavilions funded by government institutions, firms and/or private donors. 89 national pavilions opened their doors in Venice in 2011, the highest number ever. Germany won in 2011 the Biennale’s highest honor, the Golden Lion for best national contribution. The work is by Christoph Schlingensief, the German artist who died in August 2010. His "Church of Fear" installation is a massive critique against society and the Church.
It was my first Biennale, and it was fascinating because it saw how art is very political - and not only in the Arab region. Artists have been playing a crucial role in countries under dictatorships (softly destabilizing them), and they helped topple dictators (remember Ahmed Basiony). Arabs can be proud of most of the work exhibited in Venice in 2011, the year of Arab democracy on the rise. My dream is that one day Palestinians and Israelis exhibit together in Venice, and that Arab artists can exhibit anything they wish in every Arab state. No more fear, no censorship and no taboos.
NB: Impossible to write about art from the Arab region at the mother of Biennales without visiting the US and Iranian pavilions.
Allora & Galzadilla, "Tank and Field", US pavilion
In the state-sponsored Iranian pavilion, a heartbreaking installation of Morteza Darehbaghi with pictures of human losses during the war Iran-Iraq 1980-1988.
.Morteza Darehbaghi, Iranian pavilion
Fouad Hamdan is an independent Arab pro-democracy activist who established and headed Greenpeace Lebanon in 1994-1999 and was the founding executive director of the Arab Human Rights Fund in Beirut in 2008-2010. Since January 2011 he is advising on a voluntary basis Arab NGOs and activists, and he is working as a consultant for Media in Cooperation and Transition and the Global Campaign for Climate Action. From May-September 2011 he is heading a pro-democracy project in Tunisia. He also trains Tunisian and Egyptian NGOs on developing communications strategies.
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