En la 58ª Exposición Internacional de Arte de la Bienal de Venecia, el Pabellón Nacional de los EAU presenta Passage, una instalación inmersiva de dos canales de vídeo y doce canales de sonido de la artista Nujoom Alghanem. Filmada en los Emiratos Árabes Unidos y en Venecia, la obra ha sido concebida y desarrollada en estrecha colaboración con los curadores Sam Bardaouil y Till Fellrath.

Nujoom Alghanem es una reconocida poetisa y cineasta y una de las principales voces de su generación. Con ocho volúmenes aclamados por la crítica publicados hasta la fecha, se destaca por sus contribuciones a las nuevas formas de lírica árabe contemporánea. Como cineasta galardonada, ha dirigido una serie de largometrajes y documentales que promueven la reflexión sobre cuestiones de género y normativas sociales.

Passage expands Nujoom Alghanem’s experimentation with contemporary Arabic poetry through the language of film. Taking her quintessential 2009 poem, The Passerby Collects the Moonlight, as a point of departure, this installation explores the universal experience of displacement.

It is structured along two distinct narratives, one “real,” the other “fictional,” which are simultaneously projected as two non-linear films on the opposite sides of the same screen. The “real” narrative depicts the endeavours of Nujoom and Amal, a Syrian actress residing in the United Arab Emirates, to create a film for the Pavilion. The “fictional” narrative is an aestheticised portrayal of Falak, a displaced woman on an arduous journey. The latter is conceived by Nujoom and played by Amal. This Brechtian conflation of reality and fiction, culminating in a scene that depicts Falak arriving to the Pavilion in Venice, prompts the viewer to consider the parallels between the film’s three main protagonists: the director, the actress and the fictional character. These three women of a similar age are connected by the experience of shared dualities: the hidden and the revealed, fragility and power, as well as belonging and displacement.