13-03-2023 | Pearls, Ports and Poetry: Mapping The Arab Influence in Venice

I am incredibly fortunate and grateful to have been offered a place on the British Council’s Venice Fellowship Programme this year, and will be working for one month in Venice at the prestigious Biennale Architettura in August. As fellows we will steward the British Pavilion and take on a personal project which relates to this year’s theme ‘The Laboratory of The Future’, selected and curated by Lesely Lokko. I am excited for this opportunity for many reasons, one of which is for the chance to visit the UAE Pavilion and see first hand the work and ideas of my father’s homeland. I’m looking forward to connecting with that side of my own heritage, that often feels distant. Below I include my project proposal.

My project proposal is concerned with the dissemination of materiality and oral histories via merchant seafaring communities, who historically travelled the trade routes to and from Venice. Specifically, I am interested in Arab populations visiting and trading with the ports of Venice, for example, the Emirati pearl diving trade of the 19th and 20th centuries. My research will also examine an Islamic influence on the art and architecture of Venice, a consequence of trading relations between Venice and the East during the period 828-1797. An important reference point underpinning my research will be the theories of academic, Marina Warner, whose ideas on the metamorphosis of myth relate to the incorporation of Eastern stories into European culture, and connect to the storytelling traditions of Arab peoples. Predominantly a research practice, my project will draw upon methodologies to do with the collection and documentation of data. This will take shape via written, sonic and visual practices, such as essay writing; drawing; field recording; frottage; and photography, whilst interacting and collaborating with the people and places I encounter during my visit to Venice. Ultimately I hope to answer the following questions:

1. In what ways has the Arab world influenced the visual identity of Venice?

2. Which stories travelled from the East and were incorporated into Venetian, and more widely, European cultural vernacular?

3. To what extent has Venice historically acted as an interface between the Arab world and the West, and does it continue to act as such in the context of the Venice Biennale?