B5381 - Seminar (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Students acquire the main skills to intervene in both academic research and public debates on the most urgent contemporary issues related to arts and cultural heritage. Accordingly, students also learn about the relevance of arts and heritage for wider political and public debates. The seminar may involve various formats (lectures, conferences, study days, curatorial projects, installations etc.) and ensures the integration of theories with practices.

Course contents

SEMINAR: "DECOLONIZE THIS SPACE"!

 

This seminar aims at engaging students with colonial traces in urban landscapes and heritage, and aims at engaging with reflections and practices around the coloniality of power in present times. More widely, the seminar offers a space to reflect and learn on the persistence of the coloniality of power in and beyond art spaces, and on issues of resistance, transformation and reparation.

Through the seminar we hope to contribute to creating spaces of debate around public issues such as colonial past and ongoing legacies and their subversion. We will also focus on discourses and aesthetic representations which normalise racial hierarchies and racism. We will reflect on what resistance (or dissensus) can look like in political art and public and spatial interventions such as urban interruptions and resignification, aesthetic disruptions, artistic/aesthetic protests, public discourses around reparation and restitution (Rhodes Must Fall Movement, Slavery Inquiries, Artifacts restitution etc).

Renown scholars, architects, anthropologists and artists will be contributing to the seminar with guest lectures.

The overarching conceptual framework of the seminar stems from Jacques Ranciere’s insights on the relation between aesthetics and politics in the production of consensus and dissensus. Notably, dissensus must cut across and destabilise consensus -that is assigned hierarchies and normative forms of belonging, genres and discourses - by introducing new subjects and objects into the field of perception. By focusing on the aesthetic dimension of politics and the political dimension of art, students will be encouraged to think of ways to challenge dominant representations (consensus) and bring about dissensus. Our explorations of these issues will draw from different contexts and historical experiences across Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Our seminar will be articulated through a combination of lectures and guest lectures, class discussions, presentations, walks and a private visit/workshop at the Biennale (Biennale sessions). This will happen on October 8th. Please see the detailed programme of the day here below. Students who want to participate must sign up on this google sheet. Funding for the train journey will possibly to be available .

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jIwU9m47810PmN_7SUJjW9ct0irCPSMWv_gdqCHIBc4/edit?usp=sharing

BIENNALE SESSION

Enhancing Arab Narratives: Pathways within Biennale and Academia
Temporary / Confidential programme
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An initiative by:

Alba Nabulsi – Journalist and Educator, Freelance Collaborator for Biennale Educational
Date: October 8, 2025

University Partners:

University of Bologna (Unibo), University of Padua (Unipd), IUAV Venice, Ca' Foscari University of Venice

Media Partner:

The New Arab – Al Arabi Al Jadeed

Venue:

Arsenale, Room G / Sala G (in front of the UAE Pavilion)

Address: Campo della Tana 2169/F, Sestiere Castello, Venice

Meeting point:

Giardini

Giardini della Biennale. SESTIERE CASTELLO 30122 VENEZIA


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Overview

This session explores Arab voices through a curated tour of the Biennale, highlighting this year’s theme, "Intelligens," as interpreted by the Arab pavilions. The programme is particularly tailored for students from the Faculties of Urban Planning (IUAV Venice), Sociology (UNIPD), and Arts, Museology and Curatorship (UNIBO).

Alba Nabulsi will introduce the themes represented across the Arab pavilions and coordinate the guided tour.

Beatrice Leanza, curator of the Saudi Pavilion, will share insights into the curatorial process and the development of its public programme.
Deena Hammam, Associate Curator of Learning & Audience Engagement at Art Mill Museum, (Qatari Pavillion) will explain the “Beyti Beytek” exhibition ongoing at Palazzo Franchetti and the Giardini.

Professor Ruba Salih (UNIBO) will share some reflections on what decolonial horizons can be possibile at a time of genocide. How to rethink space after urbicide?

Venice-based Palestinian artist Jasmine Barri will contribute her perspective on the Arab diaspora, memory, and identity through her artistic practice.

Alessandra Ferrini will talk about her project in the previous Art Biennale highlighting the Italian colonial past in Libya, “Gaddafi in Rome, Anatomy of a friendship”.

The participation of DAAR, the Italian-Palestinian architecture studio, awarded with the Golden Lion in the previous Architecture Biennale is now confirmed.

Board members from The New Arab will present their ongoing media coverage of Arab presences at the Venice Biennale, reflecting on its international reception and impact (to be confirmed in presence/remotely).
A closing video-performance of the mezzosoprano Dema Bakri introduced by the artist herself will close the event.

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Programme Schedule

10 - Meeting point at Giardini

Meet and greet

Autonomous Visit of the Qatar Pavilion (no guided tour)

Coffee and Dates ritual

Walk towards the Arsenale

11:00–13:00 – Talks and Performances

Venue: Room G / Sala G (Arsenale)

13:00–14:30 – Lunch Break

Lunch is provided for discussants, artists, and contributors. Students are advised to bring a packed lunch or dine at nearby cafés/restaurants.

14:30–16:00 – Guided Tour of other Arab Pavilions

Pavilions: Lebanon, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Bahrain, Oman.

16:30–18:00 – Work Café where students are invited to imagine their own curatorial programme of an Arabic country pavilion / collateral event.

(Sala G)

Contributors

Beatrice Leanza – Curator, Saudi Arabia Pavilion (remote)

Deena Hammam, Learning & Audience Engagement at Art Mill Museum, Qatari Pavillion (in person)

Ruba Salih – Professor, UNIBO (in person)

Alessandra Ferrini - Artist (in person)

Jasmine Barri – Artist (in person)

The New Arab – Media Representatives (in person)

Alba Nabulsi – Session Coordinator and Discussant

DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency) (online) Intervention about the Ente di decolonizzazione Borgo Rizza - Biennale Golden Lion 2023

Performance (video recording + introduction):

Dema Bakri – Mezzo-Soprano (in person)

Video display of her performance singing Vivaldi's Filiae Maestae Jerusalem


Art installation – Jasmine Barri

The diaspora series

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Guest speakers of the Seminar include:

Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal, Founders of the Decolonising Architecture, Art, Research and Winners of the Golden Lion for Best Participation at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, for their long-standing commitment to deep political engagement with architectural and learning practices of decolonization in Palestine and Europe.

https://www.decolonizing.ps/site/about/

Nicola Perugini, Associate Professor, University of Edinburgh, and curator of "La Pelle Sotto, Decolonizzare Villa Marina"

https://artslife.com/2024/07/20/la-pelle-sotto-decolonizzare-villa-marina-a-pesaro-la-ricerca-partecipativa-che-riflette-sul-colonialismo-italiano-intervista-a-tommaso-fiscaletti-e-nicola-perugini/

Victoria Klinkert, Researcher, University of St Gallen

"Reckoning with Empire: from ignorance to responsibility"

:https://www.unisg.ch/en/newsdetail/news/how-great-britain-is-coming-to-terms-with-its-imperial-past/

Annalisa Frisina, University of Padova.

Decolonize the city. Reflections from visual practices of decolonisation

https://www.roots-routes.org/decolonize-your-eyes-padova-pratiche-visuali-di-decolonizzazione-della-citta-di-annalisa-frisina-mackda-ghebremariam-tesfau-e-salvatore-frisina/

Decolonial Walk in Cirenaica (Tbc)

Teaching methods

Lectures, Guest Lectures, Walks, Workshop in Biennale Sessions, Conversations, Discussions

Assessment methods

The seminar is exam free. It gives students a pass or non pass (idoneita').

Office hours

See the website of Ruba Salih