Saudi visual artist Manal Al Dowayan is known for her research-based, participatory practice, placing community voices at the forefront of her artwork. Her exhibition for the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at this year’s Venice Biennale is no different.
Titled Shifting Sands: A Battle Song, curated by Jessica Cerasi and Maya El Khalil, Al Dowayan’s multimedia installation is inspired by the evolving role of women in Saudi Arabia. It is rooted in three workshops that took place across the country, where she engaged with more than 1000 women from all walks of life.
The installation’s genesis stems from Saudi folkloric battle songs – specifically Al Daha and Ardah – traditionally performed by men, originating before the formation of Saudi Arabia, when tribes gathered before a battle to chant poems for courage and strength.
“I always say that art sits in between the archive and the research. Continuing research is something that takes time and energy from many people to be verified,” Al Dowayan tells The National. “I can take a bit of what exists as clean truth, look at what kind of ideas are being explored and then reimagine something – trigger an idea, have a conversation in a much safer space, because the space of art is a space of imagination, of freedom, emotion, truth and humanity.
“[I explore] this idea of creating a song for women during this moment of change,” she adds. “Although women do have a lot of folkloric and traditional dances, they've never been archived or documented, so I don't know the words of the songs and the feeling of preparing as a group to make a gesture, a sound or a sonic communication.”
The workshops, held earlier this year in Jeddah, Al Khobar and Riyadh, form the basis of this new battle song. By open invitation, women participated in group-singing sessions led by Al Dowayan and Ileana Yasmin, a vocal coach for the Music Commission under the Ministry of Culture in Riyadh.
The women produced writings and illustrations on the topic, which are used in the installation. They were also encouraged to reflect on global media’s role in depicting Saudi women, often skewed by western politics and misinformation, rarely giving them a chance to speak for themselves.
Before the workshops, Al Dowayan took a trip to Saudi’s Empty Quarter – a vast section of desert with no human settlements – to capture the sound of the booming dunes, a humming created when the granules of sand move. She recorded the sound and played it to the women during the singing sessions.
“Media today, both local and western, has been obsessed with the Arab woman, the Muslim woman, the body of the woman. The language that exists out there defining what the Arab woman is, what the Muslim woman is, is very distorted and comes from one point of view, which is 'the other',” Al Dowayan explains. “We started off the workshops with me showing articles to the women of what has been written about Arab women, then I requested they draw or write a statement about what they read.
“Then we did the singing sessions and I told the women to harmonise with the sound of the dunes. This closeness to Earth was a very important element for me and I told them to first of all hum and harmonise, then with open mouth for an 'ahh' sound,” she says. “For the third round I collected all the drawings they did, chose a set of six from every city and asked the person who wrote that text to read it into the microphone, and all the women to repeat it.”
Recordings from the sessions are the first thing visitors hear when entering the pavilion, as speakers lining the hall emit the humming of the women, rising and falling with the occasional spoken word layered in.
At the heart of the installation, are four colossal sculptures based on the shape of Desert Rose crystals – naturally occurring crystals formed when heavy rain is followed by extreme dryness in the desert. The shapes, almost reminiscent of desert dunes themselves, have been made from silkscreened illustrations and writings, padded to form 3D slates, arrayed like the crystal.
Using the Desert Rose as a symbol of resilience and transformation under pressure, Al Dowayan has employed the shape in previous projects, with the largest version to date created for Venice.
“I started looking at these [now decommissioned] traditional religious instructional books from the 1990s, written by men for women, to tell them how to use their body, how to behave, the rules of the public space,” Al Dowayan says. “Always on the covers of these books you would see a women being represented as a western species of rose, as a visual language.
“I don't see it in my community or growing in Saudi Arabia. It's also a plucked, delicate rose that's alone, not rooted to nature, waiting to be given water and it can die at any moment. It is very delicate and weak,” she adds. “At the same time, I grew up in Dhahran, an oil community, and my family are in oil, so I was surrounded by geologists.
“Just 15 minutes away from my mother's house is a desert that produces Desert Rose crystals, and I've been playing with these since childhood. I feel that the Arab woman is closer to this story than the delicate just plucked rose on those books.”
Two sculptures act as bookends to two central ones. Words from news articles are printed on them – such as “oppressed, repressed and depressed” – removing their power. They prompt viewers to think critically of media and how specific words and images can have an impact on broader society. As such, the articles have been printed over each other in different languages, purposely illegible in some places to represent the mass of incoherent sensationalism.
The central sculptures act as the response of the Saudi women who participated in the project, with a selection of their drawings printed on the sculpture, refuting the claims and giving their own views.
“The whole exercise was meant to encourage women to look within, for energy, for power and strength; to not search for validation in the outside cacophony of people who are trying to speak on our behalf, without ever reaching out to us for our voice,” Al Dowayan shares. “We will therefore send out our voice for the next moment that's approaching us as Saudi women, because really, we've received so much change and there will be more to come.”
Shifting Sands: A Battle Song will be on view from Saturday until 24 November 2024 at the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the Arsenale, Sale d’Armi, Venice, Italy.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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South Korea
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ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
Results
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,600m; Winner: RB Kings Bay, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: AF Ensito, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash
8pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m; Winner: AF Sourouh, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
8.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m; Winner: Baaher, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
9pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Mootahady, Antonio Fresu, Eric Lemartinel
9.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Dubai Canal, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
10pm: Al Ain Cup – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Harrab, Bernardo Pinheiro, Majed Al Jahouri
Generational responses to the pandemic
Devesh Mamtani from Century Financial believes the cash-hoarding tendency of each generation is influenced by what stage of the employment cycle they are in. He offers the following insights:
Baby boomers (those born before 1964): Owing to market uncertainty and the need to survive amid competition, many in this generation are looking for options to hoard more cash and increase their overall savings/investments towards risk-free assets.
Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980): Gen X is currently in its prime working years. With their personal and family finances taking a hit, Generation X is looking at multiple options, including taking out short-term loan facilities with competitive interest rates instead of dipping into their savings account.
Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996): This market situation is giving them a valuable lesson about investing early. Many millennials who had previously not saved or invested are looking to start doing so now.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Date of birth: April 18, 1998
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MATCH INFO
Fixture: Ukraine v Portugal, Monday, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
Dubai Rugby Sevens, December 5 -7
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A – Fiji, France, Argentina, Japan
B – United States, Australia, Scotland, Ireland
C – New Zealand, Samoa, Canada, Wales
D – South Africa, England, Spain, Kenya
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Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
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Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Kerala Knights 103-7 (10 ov)
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A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
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- Grade 9 = above an A*
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Saturday, January 18, v Canada
Wednesday, January 22, v Afghanistan
Saturday, January 25, v South Africa
UAE squad
Aryan Lakra (captain), Vriitya Aravind, Deshan Chethyia, Mohammed Farazuddin, Jonathan Figy, Osama Hassan, Karthik Meiyappan, Rishabh Mukherjee, Ali Naseer, Wasi Shah, Alishan Sharafu, Sanchit Sharma, Kai Smith, Akasha Tahir, Ansh Tandon
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
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The years Ramadan fell in May
