Could Qatar Be Getting a Pavilion at the Next Venice Biennale?

A Qatar Pavilion could be coming to the Venice Biennale. It would be a rare—and possibly the last—addition to the storied exhibition’s giardini, which began building its national pavilions in 1907.

The announcement of the proposal to built a biennale home for the Arab nation is one of the first moves of the biennale’s new president, right-wing journalist Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, appointed in March. It follows the resumption of direct flights with Qatar Airways to Venice, reports .

A short press release from the biennale described the pavilion proposal as part of a “Protocol of Cooperation between the Municipality of Venice and Qatar Museums” and included something of a word salad of a quote from Buttafuoco.

“The Venice Biennale is historically the thermometer of geopolitics. The common home of peoples called to the disciplines of contemporary arts that it is, in its places—and in the succession of a history of 130 years—the biennale restores the exact measure of an era,” he said. “The reading of the world and its transformations—where the pavilions of the many nations present in Venice are the fresco of that precise destiny that is the future—sees in Doha, today, the artistic tension consistent with the reason proper to the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia.”

Today, there are 30 pavilions in the garden representing 32 countries and the city of Venice. Other nations take part in the biennale in the arsenale galleries as well as rented sites across the city.

In 1988, Australia outbid 16 countries to secure what was said to be the penultimate site in the giardini, erecting a temporary structure that stood until a permanent pavilion debuted in 2015. The most recent country to snag an on-site pavilion is South Korea in 1995. It is unclear where in the garden Qatar will have space to build.

Even without an official pavilion, Qatar has made its presence known during the biennale, with the Qatar Museums acting as a supporter of the Nigeria pavilion. The biennale’s international exhibition, “Foreigners Everywhere,” also featured several works on loan from Qatar Museums’ Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.

And while it was not an official collateral event, Qatar Museums brought together the work of more than 40 filmmakers and video artists from the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia for an exhibition titled “Your Ghosts Are Mine, Expanded Cinemas, Amplified Voices” at the ACP–Palazzo Franchetti. Featured artists include Wael Shawky, Shirin Neshat, and Ali Cherri.

Venice’s new collaboration with Qatar will include staging exhibitions and seminars highlighting the historic ties between Italian and Islamic art and architecture. They first announced the deal at this year’s Art for Tomorrow conference, which first launched in Qatar in 2015. The Qatar Museums is the founding sponsor for the event, which was held in Venice in June.

“This partnership, defined on my trip to Doha last February and perfected today, will keep both Venice and Qatar at the forefront of creative, academic, economic, and social exchange around the world, building first and foremost networks and relationships between people, in mutual respect,” Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in a statement.

“We are happy to continue to explore closer relationships between our two cities, and our nations as a whole,” Qatar Museums chairperson Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani added. “We look forward to welcoming Venetians to Qatar, and invite Qataris to visit Venice’s cultural offerings.”

A giardini pavilion would certainly go a long way toward establishing a Qatari presence in the Venetian lagoon.