Saudi’s 60th Venice Art Biennale Multisensory Pavilion Empowers Women

Walking through Saudi Arabia’s National Pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale you’re immediately immersed in a maze of large-scale, printed silk and petal-like sculptures, with women's voices drumming through your ears. This is ‘Shifting Sands: A Battle Song’, a multimedia installation designed and curated by the Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan, marking the cultural metamorphosis currently sweeping through the Kingdom. 

‘Shifting Sands’ intertwines the acoustic and geological features of the desert with the voices of women. Shaped around a central motivating element, the exhibition derives its name from ancient battle ceremonies traditionally performed by men for ritualistic motivation. 

The singing voices of women in the pavilion create a striking contrast to the traditionally male-dominated battle ceremonies of Alardah and Aldahha, providing women with a platform to proclaim themselves through song and speech. 

Unfolding like a sculptural bloom made of silk, these sculptural and sound works are the outcome of a participatory workshop led by Manal AlDowayan across the cities of Al Khobar, Jeddah and Riyadh, granting over 1,000 Saudi women a united platform to assert their own voices on a global scale. 

Inspired by the desert rose - a crystal commonly found in the sands near the artist’s hometown of Dhahran - these outsized beige like floral leafs embody intertwined layers of the desert rose symbolising  the fragility, ephemerality, femininity and resilience of Saudi women. 

Running from April 20th to November 24th, 2024, at the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the Arsenale, Sale d’Armi in Venice, Italy, this immersive experience envelops visitors in multisensory traces of the region's natural landscape. It invites women to look within themselves, finding their voice and place within this new chapter of Saudi Arabia's history. 

Photography Credit: venice documentation project