Dana Awartani, a Jeddah- and New York-based artist of mixed Palestinian, Saudi, Jordanian, and Syrian descent, has created the Saudi Arabia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale using nearly 30,000 clay earth bricks. The installation, titled "May your tears never dry, you who weep over stones," replicates traditional mosaic motifs sourced from over 20 cultural heritage sites across the Arab world that have been destroyed by human conflict. Awartani emphasizes collaboration, crediting numerous skilled craftsmen—economic migrants to Saudi Arabia—who worked alongside her, and her practice blends formal training at Central St. Martins with Islamic geometry and illumination studies in Turkey.
The pavilion matters because it directly addresses the destruction of cultural heritage in conflict zones, making it urgently relevant amid recent damage to sites in Iran. By foregrounding craft as a living, evolving practice and employing displaced craftspeople, Awartani challenges static notions of tradition and highlights the human and political dimensions of art-making. The work also underscores Saudi Arabia's growing investment in contemporary art on the global stage, while raising questions about memory, loss, and resilience in the Arab world.