VENICE: For its second showing during the Venice Biennale, Qatar is staging the exhibition “Your Ghosts Are Mine: Expanded Cinemas, Amplified Voices” that takes a profound, in-depth look at the last decade of film and video art by Arab, South Asian and African filmmakers.

While Qatar has yet to have its own national pavilion, its exhibition occupies the 459-year-old Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti on the Grand Canal. The works on show are drawn from the collections of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Contemporary Art, the Doha Film Institute and the forthcoming Art Mill Museum (scheduled to open in 2030). It is divided into ten galleries, each comprising films and video art according to a specific theme such as ruins, women’s voices, borders, exile and deserts and is curated by Paris-based Matthieu Orlean, a film and video expert. The exhibition will run until November 2024.

“Film is very relevant to our institutions and is an important part of our collections,” Zeina Arida, Director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Arab Art in Doha, told Arab News.

“It is a great way to document our contemporary times,” she added. “Film is also a great way of to share who we are and what we are going through, what we as societies from these less represented countries are living and the issues we are facing.”

In-depth storytelling can be found in the films on view by Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari, Larissa Sansour, Fares Fayyad, Ali Cherri, Shaima Al-Tamimi, Ramata-Toulaye Sy, Hassan Khan and Sophia Al-Maria, among others.

In a documentary and largely journalistic style, many of the works shed light on current events and issues not often covered in mainstream media, including the now one-year old conflict in Sudan or migrants seeking new homes such as those captured in the film by Yemeni East African filmmaker Shaima Al-Tamini who charted the journey of her family from Kenya and Zanibar to the UAE.

“I was looking at movies that were different from the rest — that take a risk of telling their own story in a specific way,” curator Orlean told Arab News. “The filmmakers of these films are foreigners in their own environment because they are capturing events, whether personal or collective, that many people don’t see even in the news. Many deal with the themes of migration, social differences and exile.”

The works on view showcase both long and short films. A few highlights include Ali Cherri’s “The Dam” (2022), charting the story of a Darfuri seasonal worker from Sudan who works during the night to create a mud-brick monument. The film is a political fable that tells of the power of imagination against the backdrop of the Sudanese revolution. There is also Qatari artist Sophia Al-Maria’s well-known work “Black Friday” (2016) and British-born Egyptian multimedia artist Hassan Khan’s “Jewel” (2010) featuring a luminescent fish in dark waters followed by two men dancing to Arabic music.

“‘Jewel’ was triggered by a moment witnessed on the street in Cairo in 2006 — two men dancing around a speaker with raw, brutal and beautiful music blaring out,” Khan told Arab News. “It took four years before I could finally produce the work for Mathaf's opening exhibition in 2010 and by then so much was bubbling around us that it seemed to channel something real. Imagine a one second flickering daydream slowed down and stretched into six intense minutes. It is about our deepest sources — history, culture, emotion — and how we communicate the alien that lives inside all of us.”

RIYADH: Saudi International Luxury Week, which is taking place in Riyadh until May 9, showcases a selection of fine jewelry from around the world.

The event offers a unique opportunity for Saudi clients to acquire exclusive and sophisticated pieces.

House of GOL, a New York-based brand known for its colorful diamonds, has shown a rare pink diamond at the event.

Anna Larsen, head of business development at House of GOL, has been visiting Saudi Arabia for the past three years to meet clients.

Larsen said that House of GOL specializes in high-end jewelry and many people buy it to reflect their heritage and to pass it down to future generations.

The brand had previously visited the ZAH creative hub in Riyadh and continued its tours across the Kingdom. House of GOL's participation in the luxury week was in collaboration with Clea Nasr, ZAH's head of marketing.

"We're here today with House of GOL to support them at a luxury jewelry event, following our earlier private event at ZAH. We support local and international designers through all PR and marketing activities, creating targeted strategies to drive exposure and growth, especially in Saudi Arabia," Nasr said.

The brand stands out by involving its clients in the jewelry creation process, hand drawing and painting the designs and then allowing clients to keep the drawings, adding a personal touch to the design experience.

Another standout brand at the event is Maitraya, an Indian company specializing in pure Gulf pearls, including khaleeji and Saudi pearls.

The brand is led by Sanghvi Maitarya, a seventh-generation representative of his family’s pearl business.

“My great-grandfather used to travel by boat,” said Maitarya. “This was before the Second World War and the discovery of oil. The oyster industry had declined and no longer produced these kinds of pearls. These are Saudi natural lulu pearls.”

He said that the pearls were no longer found in the Gulf, adding: “We collected them from grandmothers, maharajas, royal families, and other sources around the world.”

FerriFirenze, an Italian brand, is also impressing Saudi clients at the event.

Giulia Lina Callegari, owner of FerriFirenze, said: “We came to Saudi for the first time five years ago. We’ve seen the changes, the enthusiasm, the projects, and we’re always excited to meet local ladies who know jewelry, appreciate style, and often become our guests in Florence.”

FerriFirenze is a family business that began 10 years ago, and Callegari added: “We create jewelry that moves, physically moves when touched, is flexible, and so on. This style of jewelry can only be made by hand in Italy.”