Representing Saudi Arabia at Venice Biennale of Art (May 9 – November 22), Saudi artist Dana Awartani presents a monumental mosaic installation that blurs the line between contemporary art and regional craft heritage.
Titled May your tears never dry, you who weep over stones, Awartani’s immersive installation is the culmination of years of hands-on research. Under the curation of Art Jameel’s Antonia Carver and assistant curator Hafsa Alkhudairi, the pavilion celebrates the revival of ancient artisanal practices while sounding an urgent call to protect the region’s conflict-threatened heritage.
Her most ambitious work to date, the floor-based installation invites viewers to traverse an imagined archaeological site of mosaics, inspired by 23 heritage sites across Lebanon, Palestine and Syria that have been completely or partially destroyed by war and conflict.
“There was so much trial and error, working with the craftsmen to perfect the material and form, and I got to witness all of this come together and really understand what it means to make such a collaborative piece of work,” Alkhudairi tells AD. “Every person had such an impact on the work and put so much blood, sweat and tears into this piece to showcase that, yes, there's devastation and history is being erased, but there's so much hope in these collaborative practices and the future of restoring this intangible heritage.”
Created in collaboration with 32 Saudi-based master artisans, the work is composed of over 29,000 handmade clay tiles, produced, sun-baked and refined, representing over 30,000 hours of manual work. The resulting pavilion is a sprawling kaleidoscope of geometric patterns, floral motifs and symbolic animals and icons. The dimly-lit space has a sacred, calming ambiance, offering a quiet retreat from the busy pathways outside at the Venice Biennale and a moment to reflect on the sombre subject Awartani’s work touches on.
“The art of mosaics was first created in Mesopotamian, which is modern day Iraq, and then came to Europe, where under the Roman and Greek empires they really flourished as an art form,” Awartani tells AD. “Then the Byzantines came back to the Arab world, and they brought that art back with them. All of these patterns you see here were originally from roman-byzantine mosaics in the Levant. Some are exact copies and some are combinations of a few sites, with a few colour tweaks when translating from ceramic or stone to the clay material I’m using."
“The one at the very entrance with the animals and the one in the centre are from inspired by the Bureij mosaic in Gaza that was destroyed in 2024, and then next to it on the right is from St. Hilarion Monastery that was destroyed by Israel,” she adds. “The geometric circle next to the palm tree mosaic is found both in Palestine’s Church of Nativity and also in Beiteddine Palace in Lebanon, which was damaged last year in the war. I think there's a lot of power in recreating something that has been purposely destroyed, in the largest public arena for the arts. I see it as a form of resistance.”
An elevated platform at the front allows viewers to get a top-down view to appreciate the mosaics, but the main goal is to have the audience weave between the works, seeing them as they would have been seen when in use in these ancient sites.
The mosaics hail from mosques, churches, palaces, and archaeological sites like necropoli and caravansaries spanning 3000 years, all recognised by UNESCO, the World Monuments Fund, ALIPH Foundation, and other heritage preservation institutions.
However, Awartani chose not to specifically label each mosaic’s origin, but rather focus on their common visual language that has transcended geographic boundaries. Instead of framing them as ‘Arab’ monuments, the mosaics are a heritage that connects east and west, with similar vernacular found from Europe through to Asia.
“They're World Heritage monuments. They're for all of us. People sometimes think of the Arab world as a very homogenised Islamic land, but the majority of the things here are from churches, monasteries, synagogues, mosques, and hundreds of different civilisations,” Awartani says. “I wanted to show the culture of east to the west by showing what we have in common more than our differences, and to raise awareness about what's going on right now, because it's still ongoing. Just a few weeks ago, there was destruction in in Lebanon, where another shrine was destroyed. So for me the sense of urgency is super important.”
This sense of urgency can be felt in Awartani’s material choice for the pavilion. The clay tiles are extremely fragile and some have been left intentionally cracked, chipped and broken when assembled in the final work. The tiles are also not glued down or grouted - left loose and unsupported – a very nuanced and symbolic choice that means the mosaics can never be used for their original function. If walked on, they would crumble to dust.
Part of Awartani’s practice is her dedication to protecting the craft knowledge that created and now restores these incredible sites. The destruction of these heritage sites goes hand in hand with the displacement of the people who safeguard them, erasing entire communities that hold generations of expertise. For this project, she worked closely with a team of craftsmen who restore adobe brick house in Diriyah, taking over a farm on the Riyadh outskirts to produce the work.
“Adobe is usually used to build vertically - homes out of bricks – but I wanted it for a tiling system, so we altered the traditional method which uses hay and sand to bind the brick, here removing those elements, because I wanted it to crack when it dried,” Awartani says. “But also part of the process was making wooden moulds for the tiles, and I worked with a group of Riyadh-based Indian woodworkers for this. It was really a coming together of different artisanal expertise.”
Ultimately, Awartani’s pavilion is more than a display of just technical mastery; it is a living archive of loss and resilience, but also beauty and human skill that has survived countless tides, despite the odds.
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