In 2021, Saudi Arabia took part in the Venice Architecture Biennale for the second time, with an exhibition entitled Accommodations.
Hussam Dakkak, Basmah Kaki and Hessa AlBader were the architects selected to represent the Kingdom. With their practice spanning Jeddah, London and Kuwait City, the trio represented a new generation of creatives coming of age during the country’s cultural transformation. They worked alongside Brooklyn-based curators Uzma Z. Rizvi and Murtaza Vali.
Last year’s theme, How Will We Live Together? was reflected through the lens of past and historical representations of quarantine. The Saudi National Pavilion was presented as an experimental exhibition rooted in archival research. The structure and design of the Pavilion inspired moments of exploration, retrospection, and analysis. The three-part exhibition was envisioned as several spaces within a space, and it invited visitors into the realms of quarantine through which they explored the intertwining relationship between inclusion and exclusion. The exhibition examined the evolution of enclosures as they respond to external contexts, derive new meanings from novel situations, and redefine the relationship between the individual, the community and the other.
“The exhibition traces the history of enclosures, examining how the built environment and urban fabric adapts to accommodate emergency conditions and how the meaning and use of such spaces shift over time. Through the Saudi National Pavilion, we hope to inspire a greater understanding of the tensions between the acts of separation inherent in quarantine and the acts of accommodation required to continue living,” explained curators Uzma Z. Rizvi and Murtaza Vali.
Commissioner: Architecture & Design Commission
