Shifting Sands: A Battle Song exhibition catalogue launch

The Saudi Visual Arts Commission is pleased to announce the publication of Shifting Sands: A Battle Song, a richly illustrated hardcover catalogue that celebrates the multimedia installation by Manal AlDowayan at the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the 60th International Venice Biennale (April 20–November 24, 2024).

Named after the artwork, the 200-page English and Arabic publication contextualizes Shifting Sands: A Battle Song and features seven commissioned essays and a detailed timeline of AlDowayan’s career by renowned female cultural practitioners, including Pavilion co-curators Jessica Cerasi and Maya El Khalil, assistant curator Shadin AlBulaihed, curator Iwona Blazwick, multidisciplinary creative Ruba Al-Sweel, heritage curator and art historian Camille Morineau, researcher and writer Ghada AlMuhanna Abalkhair, and poet Fawziyya Abu Khalid. Together, the essays address matters surrounding visions of womanhood today both in Saudi Arabia and globally.

Throughout, the publication is illustrated with images of AlDowayan and her team’s trip into the desert to capture the sound of the singing sands of the Rub’ al-Khali, as well as of the participatory workshops held across Saudi Arabia during which the artist connected with over 1000 Saudi women and girls who asserted their own voices with regards to how they are portrayed in local and global media. Close ups of the drawings and notes created by women during the workshops offer an intimate look at the voices that are amplified in the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia.

Cerasi’s essay, “A Rallying Cry”, offers an insightful analysis of Shifting Sands: A Battle Song by illustrating how AlDowayan uses the metaphor of the shifting desert sands to reflect the dynamic cultural landscape of Saudi Arabia. The co-curator delves into how the multi-layered installation, through its integration of sound and sculpture, highlights themes of resilience, transformation, and solidarity. In the essay “A Voice and a Voice and a Voice and a Voice”, El Khalil revisits the participatory nature of AlDowayan's work, emphasising how the artist’s practice has long provided platforms for Saudi women to express themselves. She notes how this collectivism is profoundly important to AlDowayan, who “works continuously to find the right balance of authorship and togetherness”. As for AlBulaihed, she pens “In Context: A Timeline”, a comprehensive record of modern day cultural initiatives in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1933 and extending to AlDowayan’s present day contribution to the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

Blazwick writes about AlDowayan’s participatory practice in the text “Memory As Future”. She references the preparatory work for Oasis of Stories, an installation the artist is creating for Wadi AlFann in AlUla, for which she captured the drawings and testimonies of 700 local men and women that detail the realities, hopes and dreams of AlUla’s residents.

Al-Sweel pens “The Contemporary Image”, a text which explores AlDowayan’s use of images to challenge the narratives surrounding women in Saudi Arabia. On her part, Morineau writes about women’s independence by working collectively in the text “In the Continuity of Community”, highlighting AlDowayan’s participatory practice as a contributor to the preservation and reinterpretation of women’s roles and histories.

In Abalkhair’s essay “Echoes of Expression: The Untold Aspect of Saudi Women’s History”, the researcher and writer delves into the nuanced roles of women in society through historical photographs that challenge stereotypes in their depictions of Bedouin women’s active participation in cultural practices such as Sadu weaving and tent-making, and in battle dances including Aldahha. Poet Abu Khalid shares “The Women’s Poem”, verses which first appeared in her prose poetry collection Mirage Water (1995).

The catalogue, Shifting Sands: A Battle Song, is available for download at saudipavilion.org

To order a copy of Shifting Sands: A Battle Song, click here.

Shifting Sands: A Battle Song is available for purchase at the Venice Biennale bookshop in the Central Pavilion, Giardini and in the Corderie, Arsenale.