Page 54 - La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
58TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION

SAUDI ARABIA
After Illusion

ZAHRAH AL GHAMDI, MYCELIUM Commissioner: Misk Art Insitute.
RUNNING, 2018, LEATHER Curator: Eiman Elgibreen.
INSTALLATION, COURTESY OF Exhibitor: Zahrah Al Ghamdi.
THE ARTIST AND MISK ART Venue: Arsenale
INSTITUTE.

Zahrah Al Ghamdi is known for her site-specific installations
that are assembled using natural materials such as sand, rocks
and leather. For the exhibition After Illusion, Zahrah Al Ghamdi
will demonstrate the intimate tactile encounter she undergoes
in the process of making the work that exhibits her master
craftsmanship. The exhibition aims to recognise, reconnect, and
revisit a feeling where one tries to explore something new but
rather familiar; a step into an imaginary world created by the
artist to seek comfort in her journey towards self-realisation. After
Illusion is curated by Eiman Elgibreen, to reflect on the history
of Saudi Arabia and its identity. The team is guided by Project
Advisor, Nada Shabout. The title After Illusion is inspired by a line
from an ancient Arabic poem written by Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma
(b.520 – d.609), in which he described his struggle to recognise his
home after being away for twenty years. Only ‘illusion’ helped the
eighty-year-old poet recognise it – a state of mind that we fight
during our search for the ‘truth’ but somehow it paves a path to
it. Old Arabic poetry is cherished by many Saudis as an important
substitute source of ‘truth’, inspiration and a resort for those who
seek assurance.(excerpt)

SEYCHELLES

Drift
GEORGE CAMILLE: ‘ON A Commissioner: Galen Bresson.
WIND’ 2019. 102 CMS X Curator: Martin Kennedy.
76 CMS, ACRYLIC INK ON Exhibitors: George Camille and Daniel Dodin.
CANVAS.
Venue: Palazzo Mora, Strada Nova, 3659

Camille and Dodin will use sculptural and embossed forms,
audio soundscapes, painting, found objects and projections to
explore issues around ‘fake’ news, with the artists questioning
how we can be sure of the authenticity of what we read, see and
hear through the media. Camille will create a room dominated
by a paper tsunami which will surge through the exhibition
space, rising and falling with urgent and graceful fluidity. The
installation –completely white –might initially appear to present
a blanched and bleached world, yet in the spirit of the Biennale
Arte 2019 theme this world contains visually subtle messages
on how we, as media consumers, know what we know, or rather
think that we know what we know. Camille’s waves, suspended
and supported, will physically connect with both horizontal
demarcations, and will be covered with embossed forms
which reflect the artist’s signature iconography -leaves, fishes,
mammals and reptiles. Such things are relatively unambiguous
–unlike the news with its dangerous instability, and which
constitutes our modern day perpetual tsunami of info-noise.
Within Camille’s created environment we are submerged in the
collective echoes of our collective selves. (excerpt)

54 WORLD of ART