Exploring Identity, Media, and Collective Expression at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Manal AlDowayan, Shifting Sands: A Battle Song, 2024. Multimedia installation, Tussar silk, ink, acrylic paint. Dimensions variable. Sound, multichannel, 30’48”. Photography by venicedocumentationproject. Courtesy of the Visual Arts Commission, the Commissioner for the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia.
The National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia presents a powerful collaboration between curators Jessica Cerasi, Maya El Khalil, and Shadin AlBulaihed, alongside renowned artist Manal AlDowayan. Together, they have created “Shifting Sands: A Battle Song,” an evocative multimedia installation that delves into the complexities of identity, media representation, and the voices of Saudi women. Inspired by the “Desert Rose” crystal formations and enriched by the participation of over a thousand Saudi women, the installation confronts and challenges the reductive narratives often imposed by global media. Through large-scale fabric sculptures and a haunting soundscape, visitors are invited to navigate a space where the echoes of the desert and the voices of women intertwine, offering a profound exploration of belonging, resilience, and collective strength in a rapidly changing world.
ART AFRICA: How did the collaboration between artist Manal AlDowayan come about for the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the Biennale di Venezia?
Jessica Cerasi, Maya El Khalil, and Shadin AlBulaihed: Throughout her career, Manal AlDowayan has collaborated, bringing people together around ideas. Previously, we had all worked with Manal, though not with each other. Coming together as a group of women around Manal’s female-centred practice has been a unique opportunity to revisit and develop some of the ideas we had each previously explored with her. It was also a chance to learn from one another and forge new connections and a fresh approach.
What can future visitors expect from the exhibition?
Visitors will encounter a multimedia installation in the pavilion featuring sound and large-scale fabric sculptures. The sculptures were inspired by the ‘Desert Rose’, a rare crystal formation found in the desert near Dhahran, where Manal grew up. As a child, Manal remembers going with her parents to collect these crystals, an encounter with the natural ecology of the desert that sparked a lifelong fascination.
The sculptures hang from the ceiling and emerge from the floor, arranged in a maze-like formation. In preparation for this work, Manal conducted workshops with over a thousand Saudi women in three different cities across Saudi Arabia. The surfaces of the sculptures are silkscreened with drawings and writings by the workshop participants, as well as texts about Saudi women from local and international news media. This printed material juxtaposes reductive media narratives with women’s self-expressions formed in response to these perspectives on their lives. The visitor’s experience upon entering the pavilion will include encountering these sculptures and engaging with the information printed on them, accompanied by the final element of the installation—the soundscape.
The sonic element transforms the space and features two parts. Manal recorded the ‘singing sands’ of the Rub’ al-Khali, also known as the Empty Quarter, a vast desert in Saudi Arabia where the towering dunes produce an eerie groaning sound in which the dunes seem to hum and wail. This phenomenon occurs in the desert in Southeast Saudi Arabia, where colossal dunes vibrate. Intermingled with the sound of the dunes, the voices of Saudi women boldly proclaim themselves through song and speech, challenging the reductive and stereotyped portrayals contained within the media coverage printed on the petal-like forms.
Manal AlDowayan, Shifting Sands: A Battle Song, 2024. Multimedia installation, Tussar silk, ink, acrylic paint. Dimensions variable. Sound, multichannel, 30’48”. Photography by venicedocumentationproject. Courtesy of the Visual Arts Commission, the Commissioner for the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia.
Could you provide insights into the curatorial vision and narrative behind Manal AlDowayan’s installation for the Pavilion?
Shifting Sands: A Battle Song sees women articulate their positions in the context of Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes in recent years. The song is a reaction to limiting media portrayals and an empowered statement of their identities. The group singing and vocalisations that form part of the soundscape were a defiant response to the media coverage of Saudi women in an embodied and collective voice.
This journey confronts misconceptions and celebrates Saudi women’s visibility and voices, offering a powerful collective expression of womanhood.
Given the theme of “Foreigners Everywhere” for the 60th International Art Exhibition, how does the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia aim to contribute to this discourse and challenge perceptions of identity and belonging?
Venice is an international platform, and audiences beyond the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s borders often have expectations and curiosity about Saudi women. These can frequently include outdated ideas and misconceptions. The pavilion aims to confront these—good and bad—head-on.
This year’s biennale theme, ‘Stranieri Ovunque—Foreigners Everywhere,’ takes its title from the work of the Claire Fontaine collective, ‘Foreigners Everywhere.’ In turn, these artists took the title from a Turin collective fighting racism and xenophobia in the early 2000s.
In the context of this year’s biennale theme, Manal’s practice has long focused on the importance of speaking and articulating your reality, even if this is contrary to what dominant forces within a community or a society deem to be ‘important’.
The Biennale’s curator, Adriano Pedrosa, stated that ‘Stranieri Ovunque’ has a dual meaning: encountering foreigners everywhere and feeling like a foreigner no matter where you are. In Manal’s work, the media portrayals of Saudi women can make them feel ‘Othered’—like foreigners being made to feel like outsiders. In this way, it is essential for Saudi women to be able to tell their own stories to confront this estrangement and become central to their own narrative.
Manal AlDowayan, Shifting Sands: A Battle Song, 2024. Multimedia installation, Tussar silk, ink, acrylic paint. Dimensions variable. Sound, multichannel, 30’48”. Photography by venicedocumentationproject. Courtesy of the Visual Arts Commission, the Commissioner for the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia.
Manal AlDowayan’s approach to art is both participatory and collaborative. Can you elaborate on how her practice engages with local communities in Saudi Arabia and resonates internationally?
Long rooted in community engagement, Manal’s practice has been participatory, particularly with women in Saudi Arabia. Her work has involved gathering contributions and ideas and staging collaborations with women across the Kingdom.
Her participatory art creates spaces for women, bringing them together in moments of powerful collective expression. These spaces emerge from women’s private gatherings, an essential social space in Saudi Arabia. These gatherings become intimate ‘source’ spaces within Manal’s practice. Under her prompting and guidance, women can come together and feel comfortable and empowered to share their experiences and ideas. When these exchanges emerge beyond these spaces and get presented to the public, the women’s private and blended collective explorations bloom into visibility as artwork.
Thematically, Manal’s approach has primarily focused on local experiences, particularly the moments of significant change women have experienced in Saudi Arabia. In this work, the workshop sessions, which gathered over 1000 women in three cities, looked at some of the media coverage gathered by Manal in preparation for the Pavilion. Manal and a vocal coach guided the women to channel their own feelings and reactions into a collective utterance.
We have seen how this method resonates internationally by presenting Saudi women’s voices directly to a global audience. Shifting Sands: A Battle Song challenges stereotypes and prompts international audiences to question their perspectives in the hopes that they encounter commonalities and differences.
The exhibition will be on view until the 24th of November, 2024. For more information, please visit the Saudi Arabia Pavilion.
