This evening is dedicated to a conversation with curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath about their experience as curators of the UAE Pavilion at the 58^th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. This year’s Pavilion features the work of poet, filmmaker and artist Nujoom Alghanem.

Alghanem’s installation Passage was specifically conceived for the context of the Biennale and consists of a two-channel video and twelve-channel sound installation and expands her experimentation with contemporary Arabic poetry through the language of film. Poetry plays a central role in this immersive work, which takes her quintessential 2009 poem, The Passerby Collects the Moonlight, as a point of departure. Passage continues Alghanem’s reflection on themes of estrangement and her unyielding persistence to capture the universal human experience of displacement.

The National Pavilion UAE is commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and supported by the UAE Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development.

The 58^th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale is on view from May 11 to November 24, 2019.

This event is part of the Jameel’s Ramadan Nights series of special cultural programming on Tuesday and Friday nights during the Holy Month.