ASIAN ART

VENICE ASSUMES ITS OLD ROLE as a centre point between West and Middle East at this year’s Biennale. For centuries, Venice was the gateway of Islamic culture into Europe. Spain may have become Muslim by conquest, but Venice adopted much of Islam’s art by preference. This was the home of Europe’s earliest Orientalists, looking East more often than West. that was more than 500 years ago. Now that Venice is less of a trading power and more of an aesthetic theme park, the longest queues are not for the Islamic rides. When the Biennale comes to town, the attention tends to go to the countries with the most serious art reputation, and few of those are Muslim. The situation does appear to be changing, however. Just as art goes where the money is, the pavilions are pulsating with a different sort of energy this year.

The United Arab Emirates, which has staked its claim to being a regional culture magnet, is taking its message overseas. In addition to joint events such as ‘Art Paris – Abu Dhabi’, the older arts have been exported to the Louvre when the most-hyped museum of the 21st century, the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, sent an exhibition to the Louvre.

This year the Gulf is represented for the first time at the Biennale. The United Arab Emirates is proud to make the announcement and does not hesitate to call the region the ‘Arabian Gulf’, rather than the more time-honoured ‘Persian Gulf’. Iran may have a much longer artistic heritage and is only a short distance away, but the emphasis is on Arab pride, especially on the national identity that is being created in that part of the Middle East. Despite this, the curator of the UAE contribution is Iranian. Paolo Baratta, President of the Venice Biennale, did not want to sell the Gulf newcomer short: ‘It is all the more appropriate, therefore, that the Biennale will include the pavilion of the UAE, a nation that is fast becoming one of the significant new realities in the world of art.’

The home-grown creative contribution of the Gulf states is known to be small. Very few local artists have made an impression at home let alone in the international arena. This is compensated for at the committee level by an abundance of royals who take an active role. The UAE pavilion is looking beyond individual commitment. This is a national effort on a scale that would be unimaginable among the mainstream participants. The British Council, for example, may be the sponsor of the UK contribution, but it is a long way from a tourism promotion. Things are different at the UAE pavilion. As the curator, Tirdad Zolghadr, states: ‘The UAE Pavilion will be unapologetic about documenting the nation…’.

There are artists, too. Just as the organisers of everything artistic in the region are conspicuous for their female contribution, the UAE’s ambassador of art is a woman. Lamya Gargash was born in Dubai a mere 27 years ago and is creating works that are unlikely to undermine the fabric of Gulf society. The aesthetics of hospitality are explored in a series of photographs created for the Biennale. Another theme is, according to Zolghadr, ‘the politics of interior design’. This is inventive territory and particularly appropriate for Gargash’s home setting. A country does not produce the world’s most lavish hotel without giving deep thought to interior design. Other UAE artists are also represented, including Tarek Al Ghoussein and Huda Saeed Saif. Their role is subsidiary to the main attraction, which is the UAE itself.

The region has become a significant force in its own distinctive way. It is a mirror to mediaeval Venice, a city state that provided a colourful and highly commercial backdrop to the creativity of the time, commissioning architects and attracting artists. The Gulf has brought in more Beckhams than Balthuses, but at least one of India’s leading artists has joined the large number of his compatriots who have made the region their home. M.F. Hussain has not been especially welcome in his homeland lately so is happy to settle in Qatar, where he is doing a series of paintings that one hopes will be better received than his naked Hindu goddesses were in India. The Gulf has carved itself a niche as a middle-man for art, providing venues and infrastructure that have come from nowhere to world class in an astonishingly short time. No expense has been spared, which means constant mutterings about the solidity of the Gulf’s financial foundations.

No matter how bad the economic outlook may be for some of the Gulf’s more profligate emirates, they are all coming up desert roses compared to their most impoverished neighbour at the Biennale. Palestine is another newcomer in Venice, and is in many ways the opposite of the Gulf. There is a long history of talent, most of which has emigrated, and a distinct shortage of money. At the 2009 Biennale, instead of having its own pavilion, Palestine is labelled ‘Palestine c/o Venice’.

The municipality has taken on much of the responsibility, providing a converted monastery as the setting. The event is described as ‘the first participation of contemporary art from Palestine’. This may be true for the artists as a group, but some of them have been to the Biennale before, and one has been there on two previous occasions. Emily Jacir’s work was exhibited in 2005 and 2007 and as with most of what happens at the Biennale, it is largely conceptual. Paying tribute to the shared Venetian-Middle Eastern past, she has placed Arabic names on the vaporetti stops, which as well as making a statement will no doubt be useful for Arab visitors. Some of the other artists are almost as well known – Taysir Batniji, Shadi HabibAllah, Sandi Hilal & Alessandro Petti, Jawad Al Malhi and Khalil Rabah. Their work covers performance, installation and photography, along with what is described as ‘colonialist socio-spatial reconfiguration of urban centers’. Palestine’s artistic diaspora is getting the tiny nation a wider audience than, for example, Israel, which will have its own pavilion in Venice. Rather than being categorised by nation, Palestine is given the unfortunate classification of ‘Collateral Event’. Although most of the artists from Palestine are Muslim, there is a noticeable absence of religious message. This is clear all over Venice for the next few months. A number of Muslim nations are participating, without a major faith angle. The Biennale often aims to be provocative, but religious controversy is clearly crossing the line. Countries such as Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Egypt and Syria are participating, and Pakistan is joining in for the first time. The Central Asian pavilion is represented by a collective of Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and none is pushing religion.

This is refreshing, when the Palestinian cause around the world has so often been adopted by Muslim brother nations as a religious issue. Palestine was never an exclusively Muslim nation although the demographics have changed over the years. None of this is apparent in Venice, where the cause is entirely connected with nationhood and misappropriation. ‘Palestine c/o Venice’ is largely about preserving the collective memory – an aim that is unusually important in the case of a people who are without much of a homeland. The cause is backed up by similar initiatives happening at various times this year in Palestine and Israel.

One artist who is being welcomed in Israel, despite being rejected by Venice, is Gregor Schneider. As a mark of how sensitive La Serenissima can be when it fears religious controversy, there is the city’s reaction to Schneider’s magnificent Cube. This huge black box inspired by the Ka’aba in Mecca was rejected from the Biennale in 2005. After initially being accepted by the organisers it was later thought to be a terrorist threat. Schneider’s sensitive tribute to this most important of all Islamic symbols was subsequently welcomed by the Muslim community in Germany and will be travelling to one of Israel’s more progressive museums later this year. The artist had wanted it to be shown in Venice because of the city’s Islamic connections. It’s a paradox that such a supremely Islamic work should have been conceived by a non-Muslim while the Biennale’s many Muslim participants keep the show more secular.

LUCIEN DE GUISE 

Venice Biennale: 7 June to 22 November