Arabistan was an exhibition which presented a theoretical Venice Biennale pavilion for a nonexistent Arabian Gulf nation named 'Arabistan'. Done as the culmination and summary of a semester's work from an independent study centered around nations and modernity in the GCC states, the pavilion asked how the Gulf could be reimagined as a territorial project through highlighting the history and potential of the islands of the gulf. The exhibition revealed a past and possible future of political and ecological opportunism that played out across the over 300 islands of the body of water. The exhibition which was presented at Kirkland Gallery had a performative element in which the entire pavilion pretended it would be in the Venice Biennale in 2016. In a funny turn of events it was later chosen to be the Kuwait representation at the Venice Biennale, later being called 'Between East and West: A Gulf' thus fulfilling the promises made in Kirkland.
Ali Ismail Karimi & Hamed Bukhamseen