Oasis Unedited: First Look At The Next Generation of Saudi Artists: #Rhizoma (images) > 26 #Saudi Artists at the #VeniceBiennale @EdgeofArabia + Our Interview with Curator Sara Raza

Rhizoma, the Edge of Arabia exhibtion at the 55th Venice Art Biennale

Rhizoma follows the footsteps of both the first official participation of Saudi Arabia with Raja and Shadia Alem and the previous Pan-Arab exhibition of The Future of A Promise. Oasis Interviews curator of Rhizoma Sara Raza to learn more about the Saudi artists at Venice.

With Rhizoma, what do you hope as curators to offer the audience attending this year’s Venice Biennale?

SR: The premise of the Rhizoma exhibition was to create a curatorial and artistic metaphor for the next generation of artists inside Saudi Arabia. It is not an exhibition necessarily informed by nationalism or monolithic culture, but rather explores multiplicity showcasing the diverse range of artistic voices currently emerging inside Saudi Arabia. Here we have youtube TV networks and reality TV blending in the space space as fine arts, this project is about new aesthetics. There are 26 artists in the project including collectives and an Art Foundation who have worked as a network that is both systematic yet incongruous.

How is putting on an exhibition for the Venice Biennale different from any other exhibition?

SR: The Venice Biennial is the oldest most esteemed biennial in the world it was the first biennial model which subsequently informed other biennials internationally. Due to Venice's position along the historic Silk Route, which connected Europe to North Africa and Asia as a major trade port for the exchange of art and ideas is also very significant. As this event is the most important in the international art world calender we were conscious of producing an exhibition that would allow young Saudi artists to receive maximum exposure for their contributions to visual culture.

Rhizoma, the Edge of Arabia exhibtion at the 55th Venice Art Biennale

The exhibition is being co-curated – how do you feel that each of your backgrounds have contributed to this journey and working with these young artists?

SR: As a curator working between the Gulf and London my position sways between the two locations, and that coupled with an institutional curatorial background it was interesting for me to work with Ashraf who was based on the ground inside Saudi Arabia on a permanent basis and had aligned himself with alternative art groups. Also the fact that Ashraf is a poet and artist and I am an art critic and curator was also appealing as it created two different modes of syntax that fed into our distinctive curatorial approaches.

Rhizoma – is such an appropriate title for this exhibition, which draws inspiration from the younger generation, and is in a sense paralleling what is happening currently in the region and especially in Saudi Arabia. How do these young and emerging artists coming from Saudi Arabia truly represent the art scene there?

SR: The young artists are part of network that has multiple avenues and points of departure, which is reflective of Saudi Arabia and its art scene which is not monolithic. Also the generation that we concentrated on are the "network generation" that tweet, blog, facebook and are connected on youtube.

Nasser Al Salem

Although there has been huge hype around Saudi Art in the past few years, criticism has also been surfacing. Have you had any major concerns setting up for this exhibition in terms of the artwork, conception, etc.

SR: I believe that without criticism there can be no praise, criticism allows for reflection and a sense of reality and enables artists to re-evaluate their terms and ideas and remain relevant.

Ahmad Angawi, And Everyone Has a Direction to Which He Should Turn To / Wijha

Have you felt that these emerging artists have felt the need to censor themselves or have they been quite liberal in terms of boundaries set by conservative society?

SR: One of the interesting positions I have noticed about contemporary artists inside Saudi is that they are resilient to the conservatism and have instead adopted a variety of artistic interventions and techniques that toy with this ranging from humour and satire to more abstract modes of expression, which are more poetic as opposed to militant.

Shaweesh - Yoda

There are a lot of site-specific installations at Rhizoma, how has the process been like for you working with these artists?

SR: Site specific projects are a great meeting point between the artist and the curator where the space itself functions as a mediator. Site specific works are often performative in their nature and manifestation and in the context of this exhibition they are intended to be non-linear and in the moment.

Installation by Eiman ElGibreen

How do you see Rhizoma contributing to the Saudi art scene and talent out there at the moment? And is it representative of the young Saudi generation?

SR: I feel that it will help audiences connect the dots into this diverse network with multiplicity and non-hierarchy being the keywords in dicephering the artists and artworks. Rhizoma is a window into an art scene that is in the making still in its formation and one that exists just above the grassroots.

Huda Beydoun, Documenting the Undocumented

There was a conscious decision to bring a diverse group of artists with highly variable techniques, concepts, philosophies, etc in this exhibition rather than focus on a specific theme – could you explain further.

SR: Like a real rhizome (the roots of plant that shoot horizontally and vertically against the force of gravity) the idea here was to bring a real array of ideas and concepts together that entwined yet also opposed one another. In this sense there was a sense of reality rooted in the project as we were coming in at the middle as opposed to trying to construct a false narrative.

What are some of the stand out projects in Rhizoma?

SR: I am biased I like all of the project! However, for me I am really interested in the way in which reality TV and social satire and the use of the internet are used to form new asthetics especially the use of youtube that both Telfaz11 and U-Turn are employing.

What do you hope the audience will grasp after attending Rhizoma?

SR: I hope that audiences will be able view a slice of an exciting emerging art scene which does not have a linear narrative, with a set beginning, middle or ending, but has emerged at the middle. They too will be coming in at the middle.