The Minister of Culture, Judge Mohamad Wissam El-Mortada, announces in a press release, the participation of Lebanon at the 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, which will take place from April 20th to November 24th, 2024.
The artist Mounira Al Solh has been selected to represent Lebanon. Nada Ghandour has been also appointed as Commissioner & Curator and Dina Bizri as the Associate Curator.
The press release states that Mounira Al Solh has been selected by the Experts’ Committee “for her capacity to tackle poignant themes, focusing on migration and the ongoing witnessing of war and trauma with humor and a poetic approach, using a diverse range of artistic mediums: painting, drawing, embroidery, video, music, performance, and new technologies. The juxtaposition of these elements creates immersive and multi-sensory worlds, conveying a deep social engagement. Her art is narrative, powerful, and expressive, and brings together a diversity of materials, oral stories, forms, and gestures. The questions raised by her work will find a significant resonance with the issues of our time at the Lebanese Pavilion in Venice”.
Mounira Al Solh, a multi-disciplinary visual artist, was born in 1978 in Beirut. She lives and works between Beirut and Amsterdam. She learned the double bass at the national conservatory of Music in Lebanon, then graduated in painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts & Architecture at the Lebanese University in Beirut (1997–2001) and from the Fine Arts department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (2003–2006). She was also a research resident at Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2007–2008).
In 2008, Al Solh collaboratively initiated a magazine titled NOA (Not Only Arabic), and in 2013, she co-founded NOA Language School in Amsterdam, which functioned as a temporary research platform for investigations into the relationships between language and immigration. Currently Al Solh co-initiates Modka Beireot, whereby she organizes friendly and community based exhibitions and workshops in the Netherlands and in Lebanon.
Al Solh had solo exhibitions at Museumsquartier Osnabrück, Germany (2022); BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2022); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2020); Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2018); Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2018); and The Art Institute Chicago (2018).
She has also participated in group exhibitions including the Sharjah Biennial (2023); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2023); Busan Biennale (2022); ROZENSTRAAT, Amsterdam (2022); Musée National de Pablo Picasso–La Guerre et la Paix, Vallauris, France (2020); Palais De Tokyo, Paris (2020); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2020); Carré d’Art Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes (2018), Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens (2017); Venice Biennale (2015); New Museum Triennial, New York (2012); Sharjah Biennial 9 (2009); 11th International Istanbul Biennial (2009), and Home Works IV, Beirut, Lebanon (2008), among others.
She is the winner of the ABN AMRO Art Award (2023), and is one of seven shortlisted artists for the Artes Mundi 10 prize (2023). Al Solh received the Uriôt Prize from the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2007) and the Black Magic Woman Award, Amsterdam (2007). She was also shortlisted for the Abraaj Group Art Prize, Dubai (2015) and nominated for the Volkskrant Award, Amsterdam (2009). Her video Rawane’s Song won the jury prize at Videobrasil (2007).
The artist is represented by Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut and Hamburg.
The Lebanese Pavilion will be located in the Arsenal, one of the two main historical sites of the Biennale. It is produced by the Lebanese Visual Art Association (LVAA), a non-profit organization established in Paris- France.
The Selection Committee is made up of the following experts:
- Nada Ghandour, Heritage and Art Curator, Commissioner and Curator of the Lebanese Pavilion - Biennale Arte 2024, President of the Selection Committee.
- Nathalie Bondil, Museum and Exhibitions Director, Institute for the Arab World, IMA, France.
- Jean-François Charnier, General Heritage and Art Curator, France.
- Basel Dalloul, Chairman and Director of the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, DAF, Lebanon.
- Elie Khouri, President of the Elie Khouri Art Foundation – EKAF, United Arab Emirates.