Venice Biennale, 2018
Curator: Dr. Khaled Alawadi
Client: Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation
Organization: National Pavilion United Arab Emirates
Director: Laila Binbrek
Coordinator: Farah El-Rafei
Photos and Videos: Mohamed Somji, courtesy National Pavilion UAE
Contractor: Tosetto Allestimenti
Lighting: iGuzzini
Surface: 250sm
A large and full-heigth mesh walks along pavilion’s perimetric surfaces, visually defining its boundaries. The idea is to represent, through the use of a partially transparent enclosing system, the idea of “bigness”, as expressed by the curator and presented in the theme of the 2018 NPUAE. Entering the pavilion, the visitor will metaphorically rebuild the idea/shape of a large ephemeral volume, created by the two juxtaposed meshes. Behind it, he/she will discover curatorial research’s contents. Pavilion’s shape is made by the physical layout of two shifted “C” shaped enclosures. The scheme creates two buffer zones, corresponding to the entrances. A wide and empty core area, gives enough space for the central installation: a floating mosaic of architectural models.