ArtDayME: Manal AlDowayan is representing Saudi Arabia at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia with a multimedia installation entitled Shifting Sands: A Battle Song.

Exploring the medium of sound for the first time, in Shifting Sands: A Battle Song AlDowayan brings together the sonic and geological features of the desert with the voices and energy of Saudi women during a period of profound cultural transformation. 

Following the structure of Alardah and Aldahha, battle ceremonies traditionally performed by men, Shifting Sands: A Battle Song is shaped around a central motivating element. Here, it is the voices of Saudi women proclaiming themselves, through song, speech, and drawings. Visitors are invited to wind their way through a maze of large-scale, printed silk, petal-like sculptures that take their forms from the desert rose, a crystal commonly found in the desert sands near the artist’s hometown of Dhahran. Like its crystalline formation, for AlDowayan, a desert rose layers multiple dimensions – it is fragility, ephemerality, femininity, and resilience. As with her earlier desert rose sculptures, AlDowayan marks the “body” of these outsized blooms with text. Here, for the first time, the surface of these sculptures is silkscreened with drawings and writings of workshops’ participants, or texts about Saudi women, sourced from local and international news media. 

AlDowayan says: “At the Biennale Arte 2024 I will attempt to represent where I stand in my practice, positioned in the context of my community, my country, and the world. I present an artwork inspired by the evolving role of women in my country’s public sphere and their ongoing journey to redefine both the physical space they inhabit and the narratives that have historically defined them.

Shifting Sands: A Battle Song builds on my long-standing investigation into the media image and its impact on self-determination, emphasizing the significance of media representations of women, how women are seen in the collective memory of their society, and how profound the impact these images have on perceiving the humanity of the individuals portrayed.

I hope this artwork will encourage women to look within themselves and to lean on their community of women to find their voice and their space within this new chapter in history, much of which is still unwritten.”

In a groundbreaking move, Saudi Arabia's national pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale has been entirely curated by a team of talented women including Jessica Cerasi, Maya El-Khalil, and Shadin AlBulaihed.

Shifting Sands: A Battle Song will be on view from 20 April to 24 November 2024 at the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the Arsenale, Sale d’Armi, Venice, Italy.

Commissioner: Visual Arts Commission.