The Islamic Arts Biennale’s theme of Awwal Bait refers to the reverence and symbolic unity evoked by the Kaaba in Mecca, the centre of Islamic rituals.
A big part of what this biennale aims to demonstrate is that Islamic practice is rooted in collective rituals and experiences of community and belonging. I believe platforms like this have a role to play in understanding the profound cultural and artistic heritages around us alongside nurturing and promoting understanding between communities.
It is not often that the opportunity comes along for artists to fully immerse themselves in work that is expressly Islamic, or rooted in its rituals, philosophies and practices. In highlighting the diversity of Islamic ways of being, participating African artists contribute to the many notions of what Islam is and can be.
I interpreted the entrance area in the Hajj Terminal of Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport as a reception area for the world — what the city and the site has always been. It’s the gateway to hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage, and the terminal is able to accommodate up to 80,000 pilgrims. For the biennale, it contains an array of contemporary and older artefacts associated with those who service pilgrims.
The world’s first Islamic Arts Biennale shines a light on African artists incorporating Islamic motifs in their work
From there visitors move to the indoor galleries. Their principal theme is that of the sacred direction [qiblah] to which Muslims point in prayer five times a day, every day of the year. The focus of those rituals is the Kaaba in Mecca. It describes the construction of our daily spiritual belonging.
Starting in a dimly lit room and ending in a brightly lit space, viewers go on a journey from darkness to light. The works on display build upon each other in terms of scale. From the call to prayer — a sound on the vibrational scale — to the scale of the limbs and the body in prayer, to bodies in a gathering — both in life and death. The climax of the exhibition is the scale of infinity — the door of the Kaaba itself. The works include sound installations, ancient artefacts, religious manuscripts, photographic works and diverse contemporary installations ranging in scale.
In the outside space, within the hijrah (migration) theme of the biennale, the works reflect on the construction of home and belonging no matter where we are in the world — the building blocks of community created through our rituals of food, sound, festival, time and season, work, worship, memory and imagination.
Through performance, sculpture and installation, South African tapestry artist Igshaan Adams’ piece Salat al-jama’ah explores aspects of politics, race and religion as they have affected both his personal history and that of his community.
His intricate woven artworks employ a range of natural and synthetic materials, but many draw inspirations for their form and pattern from traditional Islamic textiles. For this work he collected a number of used prayer rugs from close friends and family living in the Bonteheuwel district of Cape Town. In this district, many Black and Coloured families were forcibly moved by the apartheid authorities in the 1960s.
Each rug records the imprint of its owner’s body in the act of prayer over many years. Adams has interpreted these patterns of wear using beads and semiprecious stones to create a series of new textile pieces. They speak of the value of collective worship.
The scale and story of Amongst Men by fellow South African artist Haroon Gunn-Salie stands out. He is named after Abdullah Haron, a South African imam (religious leader). An outspoken critic of apartheid, Haron was murdered while in police custody in 1969. His funeral was attended by over 40,000 mourners, acting in defiance of the apartheid authorities.
Developed by Gunn-Salie in collaboration with Haron’s widow, Galiema, and daughter, Fatiema Haron-Masoet, Amongst Men conceptually re-creates this event. A thousand individually suspended kufi caps (headpieces worn by Muslim men across Africa and South Asia) evoke the scene at the Cape Town cemetery where Haron was buried. The accompanying audio includes extracts from one of his sermons and from a poem by his friend, South African writer James Matthews, and the voices of his daughters. Amongst Men invites the onlooker to consider the intersecting histories of Islam and resistance to colonialism and apartheid.
An installation by Tanzanian artist Lubna Chowdhary celebrates generosity and hospitality in Islam, and communal rituals of eating and praying. Its form — a long, low table — draws on the traditions of the majlis (sitting room), a place where guests are entertained, often sitting on cushions or carpets. As more guests arrive, more carpets are added, symbolising a welcome that can be extended infinitely. The theme of boundless sharing is reflected in the structure of the table, which is inspired by open-source furniture design.
Through the biennale, I hope to convey the timelessness of Islamic thinking and practice and the diversity and breadth of the Muslim world. The philosophies of the Islamic faith offer the potential to think about the future differently.
The Islamic Arts Biennale is currently underway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from January 23rd-April 23rd, 2023
The writer is Artistic Director of the Islamic Arts Biennale and an Honorary Professor of Practice, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, United Kingdom
Republished from The Conversation
Published in Dawn, EOS, March 19th, 2023