qatar's permanent pavilion at the venice biennale with yasmeen lari installation

qatar announces permanent national pavilion in giardini

Qatar is the first nation in 30 years that will build a permanent national pavilion in the Giardini of Venice, one of the two historic venues of La Biennale di Venezia. First opened to the public in 1895, the Giardini currently hosts 30 national pavilions, with only two new ones opening in the last 50 years: Australia in 1973, and the Republic of Korea in 1995. The announcement follows the signing of a Protocol of Cooperation between Qatar Museums and the Municipality of Venice last year, in which the two parties agreed to strengthen their existing relationships and enhance collaboration in the cultural and socio-economic fields among Qatar, Venice, and the Italian Republic.

During the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, Qatar will present a two-part exhibition titled ‘Beyti Beytak. My home is your home. La mia casa è la tua casa.’, commissioned by H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa and Qatar Museums and organised by the future Art Mill Museum. Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari‘s Community Centre will be on view at the site of the future Qatar Pavilion, located on a central site in the Giardini, adjacent to the iconic Book Pavilion. Lari’s Community Centre installation was recently on view at Qatar’s National Museum in the exhibition MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today. Meanwhile, the second part of the exhibition will take place at ACP-Palazzo Franchetti, bringing together works by over 20 modern and contemporary architects from across the MENASA region.

Padiglione Centrale Giardini | image by Andrea Avezzu, courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

the exhibition explores menasa region’s cultural hospitality

Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums and commissioner of the Qatar Pavilion, emphasized the pavilion’s role in cultural diplomacy: ‘La Biennale di Venezia is the world’s pre-eminent gathering in art and architecture, and the Giardini is the historic landscape where extraordinary pavilions stand as ambassadors for their nations. Qatar is proud to take its place in this international assembly, advancing our role as a global leader in cultural diplomacy and providing an unparalleled platform for giving voice to the creative talent of our nation and the MENASA region.’

The Qatar Pavilion’s inaugural exhibition will be curated by Aurélien Lemonier (Art Mill Museum) and Sean Anderson (Cornell University), with the collaboration of Virgile Alexandre to bridge historical and contemporary architectural narratives of the MENASA region. This concept, titled ‘Beyti Beytak. My home is your home. La mia casa è la tua casa.’ — a phrase denoting cultural hospitality in three languages — will showcase the multitudes and commonalities of contemporary architectural expressions of hospitality and cultural exchange across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. It will reinforce the 19th International Architecture Exhibition theme, Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective, set forth by the Biennale’s curator Carlo Ratti. Among the figures represented are modernist profiles such as Raj Rewal (India), Nayyar Ali Dada (Pakistan), Abdel Wahed el Wakil (Egypt), and Minnette de Silva (Sri Lanka), alongside contemporary names like Marina Tabassum (Bangladesh), Sameep Padora (India), Abeer Seikaly (Jordan), and Sumaya Dabbagh (UAE).

Yasmeen Lari, Community Center, Doha, 2024, © Qatar Museums

Regional Architectural Legacies at venice architecture biennale

The establishment of the pavilion at the Biennale follows a Protocol of Cooperation signed between Qatar Museums and the Municipality of Venice in June 2024, strengthening cultural and socio-economic collaboration between Qatar and Italy. This makes Qatar only the third nation in the last 50 years to secure a permanent presence in the venue, joining Australia and the Republic of Korea.

Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, President of La Biennale di Venezia, welcomed Qatar’s participation: ‘Venice is the only European city to have had, since the year 1000 CE, a name in Arabic, Bunduqiyyah, a fact that testifies to the teeming mixture of languages and ethnicities that have long sheltered here. In the spirit of curiosity, exploration, and sincere human exchange that characterizes Venice and its Biennale, I welcome Qatar to the Giardini, as a powerful global source of creativity and cross-cultural understanding.’

Abeer Seikaly, Weaving a Home, 2020, © Abeer Seikaly

Ahmed Hossam Saafan, Dawar El Ezba Cultural Center , Cairo, 2019, © Ahmed Hossam Saafan

installation view of Your Ghosts Are Mine on view at ACP–Palazzo Franchetti at 2024 Venice Art Biennale | photo by David Levene. courtesy Qatar Museums