At times, situations in life can shift dramatically in just a few months or even weeks. When the 60th International Art Exhibition in Venice opened in April, it was announced that the Israeli Pavilion would remain closed. A single poster in the window explained, "The artist and curators of the Israeli pavilion will open the exhibition when a ceasefire and hostage release agreement is reached." Since the situation has seen little progress, it seems unlikely that the Israeli Pavilion will ever be open at this year's Venice Art Biennale.
Over a year has gone since the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel in October 2023 killed 1,205 people, while 251 were taken hostage and over a year has gone since Israel retaliated. As of October 2024, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the ensuing military attack by Israel on Gaza killed approximately 42,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, and injured more than 97,000, displacing nearly 2 million people. As operations continue in Gaza, the conflict has been intensifying.
In September, Israel also carried out two waves of complex sophisticated operations, in the first one pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant Iran-backed Hezbollah exploded after small amounts of explosive were hidden in the devices and remotely triggered probably via a radio signal, almost simultaneously in parts of Lebanon as well as Syria. The attack killed and wounded not only militants, but also people who were around them when the devices were detonated. In a separate attack, more detonations were triggered in Beirut and parts of Lebanon this time in walkie-talkies used by the group.
At the beginning of October, Iran attacked Israel sending an estimated 180 missiles on Tel Aviv in reprisal for the airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader and Iran's leading partner in the region, Hassan Nasrallah, and for the assassination at the end of July of the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. In the meantime, Israel intensified its attacks on Lebanon: at the time of writing this post, Lebanon's health ministry states that Israel's current military operation there has so far killed more than 2,000 people and displaced as many as a million people. Israel also attacked the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, while in turn Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli naval base near north Israel's Haifa.
Titled "A Dance with Her Myth", the Pavilion of Lebanon at the 60th International Art Exhibition in Venice (until 24th November) was commissioned before the tragic developments in the Middle East, and therefore does not directly reflect them. Instead, it centers around a mythical narrative.
Multimedia artist Mounira Al Solh, born in 1978 in Beirut and now living between Beirut and Amsterdam, drew inspiration from the myth of the abduction of Europa.
In the myth, Zeus transforms into a white bull on the beach in Tyre to seduce the Phoenician princess Europa. He rapes and abducts her, carrying her on his back to Crete, where he marries her. Their child, Minos, becomes the King of Crete and is said to have founded the Minoan dynasty, the supposed ancestor of all European civilizations.
Al Solh turned this patriarchal narrative on its head, challenging its male-dominated themes of domination and submission (some later versions of the myth suggest consent rather than abduction) and reimagined the myth through the lens of a modern, strong and free woman.
In her version, roles and genders are reversed: Princess Europa outwits Zeus to fulfill her own destiny. She holds him, walks on water as she carries him away and tosses him around with her feet as if he were a ball.
A boat crafted from reclaimed walnut wood, instead of the traditional Lebanese cedar (once favored by Phoenician shipbuilders, but now threatened by climate change), serves as the central installation of the pavilion. This ship was built by one of the last two families in Lebanon still handcrafting Phoenician boats.
However, instead of the typical horse head - symbolizing strength and power on both land and sea - the boat features the head of a donkey.
The vessel represents a journey towards emancipation and gender equality, while the unfinished structure surrounding it, designed by architect Karim Bekdache, suggests that this journey is still ongoing.
The boat is surrounded by drawings and paintings on fabric and papyrus, while masks, placed on a pontoon-like structure linking land and sea, embody society's conservative forces.
A film, projected onto the boat's sail - embroidered by Al Solh herself (will the artist be invited in future to collaborate with a fashion house? Maybe she will be tapped by Dior for one of their Dior Lady Art projects...) - adds another layer of symbolism.
In the film, there's a nod to textile and dyes through a murex, a shell tied to Phoenician history. According to myth, Hercules's dog found a murex on a beach in Tyre; but in this version, Al Solh imagines the dog as female.
The artist showcases in the film a process of dyeing fabric in "murex" purple using red onion skin and cabbage - a more sustainable alternative to the traditional Phoenician method, which required 40,000 shells to dye just a small piece of cloth, an ecologically disastrous practice.
The violent myth of Princess Europa is therefore reclaimed and reimagined, transformed into a vibrant narrative told through the bright colors of Al Solh's paintings.
In Al Solh's vision, the perspective shifts, transforming the story into one that belongs to all women. The power dynamic is reversed and, from submissive princess, Europa becomes the force that dominates a god.
This reimagining becomes a symbol of strength and resilience, challenging gender stereotypes and sparking ongoing debates about inequality, women's endurance in the face of adversity and the struggles women still face today.
So, even though the pavilion is not linked to the current situation in Lebanon, in light of the war in the Middle East, this space takes on a deeper significance: in all conflicts, civilians - especially women and children - bear the heaviest toll. This reality mirrors the timeless myth of the Phoenician princess Europa, forcibly taken by Zeus, raped and displaced to another country.
Besides, Al Solh also highlights a recurring theme of exile and return in Lebanon's history, from the Bronze Age to the present. Whether fleeing wars, natural disasters, or the more recent crises, the Lebanese have repeatedly been forced to leave, only to eventually return. Thus, the pavilion becomes not just a celebration of Lebanon's cultural legacy, but a space for reflection and dialogue.
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