The Venice Biennale 2022 is a perfect platform which will help increase the visibility of the Sultanate of Oman’s blossoming art scene by showcasing the creativity of Omani artists’ ability to lead, innovate, and create when they are given the space or opportunity to do so.
And the artwork derives inspiration from the country’s people, rich history, heritage and culture. Oman’s first-ever national pavilion at the international art exhibition La Biennale di Venezia pushes the country’s once relatively quiet art scene and stands out for its diversity of artistic talent.
The exhibition, titled ‘Destined Imaginaries’, brings together five Omani artists across three generations. His Highness Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham al Said, Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, inaugurated the National Pavilion at the 59th International Biennale of Arts in Italy on Thursday.
At the iconic art exhibition, the five Omani artists Anwar Sonya, Hassan Meer, Budoor al Riyami, Radhika Khimji and Raiya al Rawahi present abstract habitats of future relics largely inspired by their experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic, and offer a snapshot of the country’s vibrant creative landscape.
“The pavilion of the Sultanate of Oman stands out for its diversity of artistic talent”, says a review of the Omani exhibition by Wallpaper, a lifestyle publication by the Future Publishing Limited Quay House in London.
Beyond showcasing the talent and creativity of its five artists, ‘Destined Imaginaries’, is an initiative proposed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Youth, is a demonstration of soft power, and a symbol of Oman’s eagerness to engage with the world’s key cultural players.
A statement from Sayyid Said bin Sultan al Busaidy, the pavilion’s commissioner, and Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth for Culture in Oman, emphasises the pavilion’s goals ‘to position Oman on the international cultural map’.
It also aims to raise awareness of the country’s cultural identity at a global level, and to show our commitment to supporting Oman’s cultural development into the future.
There are already plans to take ‘Destined Imaginaries’ on tour in various parts of Oman after the Venice Biennale, so the people of Oman can witness the fruits of this cultural investment.
According to the pavilion’s curator, art historian Dr Aisha Stoby, each of the five artists chosen to represent the Sultanate of Oman have made significant and distinct contributions to their communities, activating the country’s contemporary art movement over the past 50 years and inspiring a new generation.
“We believe that their participation in Venice, and the following touring programme in Oman – with opportunities for our young generation to experience the wider world of contemporary art in Venice – will play an important role in Oman’s development and the future of its contemporary art,” Stoby was quoted as saying by GQ, a fashion and lifestyle magazine.
There are already plans for future Biennales, including the Architecture Biennale in 2023, which have emerged as a result of the planning of this pavilion.
“This inaugural pavilion is a clear declaration of cultural intent and prowess, and a promise that there is much more to come”, Stoby said.
These five artists provide an unbroken thread of art spanning 50 years of Omani art. The oldest of the participating artists, the septuagenarian Anwar Sonya is revered as the father of Omani art, and is best known for richly coloured paintings that convey the evolution of rural life in his country.
It comes, says the review in Wallpaper, “as a slight surprise that his contribution to ‘Destined Imaginaries’ is not a painting, but rather a filmed performance, based on a previously unrealised proposal by conceptual artist Raiya al Rawahi, who sadly passed away from cancer in 2017, aged only 30”.
Titled Speed of Art, Sonya’s and Al Rawahi’s collaborative piece meditates on the relationship between art and technology, imagining a future in which artists are being put out of their jobs by artificial intelligence.
The film plays inside what appears to be an abandoned airplane fuselage, with Sonya reciting an impassioned soliloquy about the importance of artistic creation in response to prompts from Al Rawahi.
Hassan Meer presents the latest instalment of his ongoing project Reflection from Memories, which explores Omani life between the 1960s and 1970s. This was an era of modernisation and social change, accelerated by the discovery of oil in the Sultanate of Oman.
While Meer’s artwork is rooted in a rapidly modernising capital Muscat, and particularly the commercial centre of Muttrah, fellow artist Budoor al Riyami draws her inspiration from Oman’s unique mountainous landscapes.
Concluding the exhibition is a site-specific work by Radhika Khimji, incorporating textiles, sculptures and walls, all based on the Al Hoota Caves, a two-million-year-old cave system in the Governorate of Dakhiliyah.
@samuelkuttyvp
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