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Minister of Culture Mohammad Wissam El-Mortada announced in a statement that Lebanon will be taking part in the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, scheduled to take place from April 20 to November 24, 2024. Artist Mounira Al Solh was selected to represent Lebanon, with Nada Ghandour appointed as commissioner and curator of the Lebanese Pavilion, and Dina Bizri as associate curator.
Mounira Al Solh was chosen by the expert committee “for her ability to tackle poignant themes such as war, trauma, and emigration with humor and poetry through various artistic techniques like painting, drawing, embroidery, video, music, performance and new technologies. The juxtaposition of these elements creates immersive, multisensory universes reflecting a deep social commitment. Her art is narrative, powerful and expressive, as it relies on a diversity of expressions, oral stories, forms and gestures. The issues suggested by her work will find particularly meaningful resonance amid the challenges of our time at the Lebanese Pavilion in Venice,” the statement added.
Al Solh is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Beirut in 1978. She lives and works between Beirut and Amsterdam. She learned to play the double bass at the National Conservatory of Music in Lebanon, then earned a degree in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture at the Lebanese University in Beirut (1997-2001) and from the Fine Arts department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (2003-2006). She was a resident researcher at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (2007-2008). In 2008, she co-launched a magazine called NOA (Not Only Arabic), and in 2013, she co-founded the NOA language school in Amsterdam, which served as a temporary research platform for inquiries into language and immigration. Currently, Al Solh co-initiates Modka Beireot, which organizes friendly and community-based exhibitions and workshops in the Netherlands and Lebanon.
Mounira Al Solh has had several solo exhibitions: at the Museumsquartier Osnabrück in Germany in 2002, at the BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, UK in 2022, at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2020, at the Jameel Arts Center in Dubai in 2018, and at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2018. She has also participated in group exhibitions including the Sharjah Biennial in 2023, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2023, The Busan Biennial in 2022, the ROZENSTRAAT in Amsterdam in 2022, the National Museum of Pablo Picasso – War and Peace in Vallauris, France in 2020, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2020, the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in 2020, the Carré d’Art Museum of Contemporary Art in Nîmes in 2018, the Documenta 14 exhibition in Kassel and Athens in 2017, the Venice Biennale in 2015, the New Museum Triennial in New York in 2012, the 9th Sharjah Biennial in 2009, the 11th Istanbul International Biennial in 2009 and the Home Works IV in Beirut, Lebanon in 2008.
Winner of the ABN AMRO Art Award in 2023, she was one of the seven artist finalists for the Artes Mundi 10 prize. In 2007, she won the Uriôt prize of the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, as well as the Black Magic Woman Award. She was a finalist for the Abraaj Group Art Prize in Dubai in 2015 and nominated for the Volkskrant Award, Amsterdam in 2009. Her video Rawane’s Song won the jury prize at Videobrasil in 2007. The artist is represented by the Sfeir-Semler Gallery in Hamburg and Beirut.
It was specified that the Lebanese Pavilion will be located within the grounds of the Arsenal, one of the two historical sites of the Biennale. It is produced by the Lebanese Visual Art Association (LVAA), a non-profit association established in Paris, France.
The selection committee is made up of the following experts:
-Nada Ghandour, Heritage Curator, Commissioner and Curator of the Lebanese Pavilion – Biennale Arte 2024 and Chair of the selection committee.
-Nathalie Bondil, Museum and Exhibition Director, Institut du monde arabe (IMA), France.
-Jean-François Charnier, Chief Heritage Curator, France.
-Basel Dalloul, Chairman of the Board and Director of the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF), Lebanon.
-Elie Khouri, Chairman of the Elie Khouri Art Foundation – EKAF, in the United Arab Emirates.
