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The Majlis:
A Meeting Place
by Caravane Earth

22 May—21 Nov 2021
Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore

La Biennale di Venezia
17th International Architecture Exhibition

Majlis: Research

Majlis مجلس stands for a place to receive guests. It is also a word for assembly. Majlis embodies the bridge between the personal and the public. It is a space of hospitality that preserves the tradition and nurtures the sprouts of new communality.

The Majlis is a multilayered nomadic project that comprises an architectural object, an exhibition, a public program, and a garden. In its core is a bamboo structure with tent panels made of pure wool. It’s been a fruit of careful long-term research and collective work conducted by architects and artisans in Colombia and Morocco. Ahmed Chmitti and the women weavers of Boujad created the fabric exteriors, while Simón Vélez and Stefana Simić were responsible for the bamboo construction. The carpet inside of it was hand-produced by the Ain Leuh Women’s Weaving Cooperative. The Majlis stands in the midst of the garden developed by the landscape architect Todd Longstaffe-Gowan.

Exhibition

One of the central parts of the Majlis exhibition is a series of photos by Jörg Gruber that document the different forms of labor that were involved in realizing the project.

The Majlis hosts an exhibition that responds to the theme of the Biennale, How will we live together? Showcasing artworks and rare artifacts from the Dutch National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands and Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum in Qatar, as well as several other important collections, the project presents a platform for transnational and transhistorical exchange. The Majlis exhibition strives to rehabilitate and reinvent the idea of cultural diplomacy through practices of care and cultural sensitivity.

In addition to that, the exhibition highlights the invisible processes behind the creation of the Majlis, revealing the material and immaterial labor that has brought it into being.Virtual tour

Symposium:

How Will We Live Together?

The Majlis is a ground for communication, cohabitation, and collaboration. It invites a vast array of possible answers to the main question of the Biennale, How will we live together? It is an ongoing experiment in the actual practice of living and working together. The Majlis Symposium brings together academics, architects, artists, craftspeople, policy makers, and thinkers from all over the world. They are all implementing tangible steps towards preserving cultural heritage, passing on the knowledge of traditional crafts and architecture, maintaining ecological balance, developing intercultural dialogue, and decolonizing the work of cultural institutions.

Over the course of summer, the Symposium will be unfolding online before moving to an offline format in September. The program will produce a growing archive of research and develop a sustainable network of the Majlis that will continue carrying out collaborative projects after the Biennale is over.

Garden

The courtyard of the San Giorgio Maggiore Monastery is home to a new wildflower garden, with plants from Mediterraniean and Central European regions that are going to thrive in the local climate for many years after the Majlis moves on. Cultivated under the direction of Royal Palace specialists from the United Kingdom, this garden creates a welcoming and tranquil environment. It invites the guests of the Majlis to pause and rest.

Caravane Earth

is a foundation with a mission to seed, practice, and promote ethical entrepreneurship and wellbeing through art, craft, architecture, agriculture, and education. We work towards positive systemic impact in social, cultural, and ecological realms. Based on principles of sustainable development, Caravane Earth supports craftspeople and strives to preserve distinct material cultures of West Asia and North Africa, introduces permaculture in extreme climatic conditions of the region, enhances its connectedness, and enables its participation in numerous intercultural dialogues.
Learn more about our mission

Honorary Committee

Her excellency
SHEIKHA AL MAYASSA BINT HAMAD BIN KHALIFA AL THANIChairperson, Qatar Museums
Professor
ANTONIO FOSCARI
Professor of Art History, University of Venice; Architect; Commendatore al Merito of the Italian Republic; Member of Légion d’Honneur of the French Republic; Former President of the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice; Former member of Conseil d’Administration du Musée du Louvre, Paris
HASHMIA DOUIRI
The most senior member of the Ain Leuh women’s weaving cooperative, founded in Morocco in 1977. Along with twenty-three other women she hand-produced the central carpet in the Majlis
THE EARL OF SNOWDON
Honorary Chairman, Christie’s UK, Europe and the Middle East; Craftsman and founder, Linley
PAUL AHMED KEELER
Visiting Fellow, Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge; author, Rethinking Islam & the West.
Mr ALAOUI OUAJID MOULAY SAID
President & Founder, Le Grand Musée de Marrakech; President & Founder of Foundation Ouajid G; CEO, Heritage Tourism Research - HTS Morocco

Press

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The Majlis received some supportive feedback from our guests and the press during the first weeks of the biennale. We are open to collaboration with media and bloggers interested in architecture, crafts, and organic farming. Our press kit is available here. Please contact us if you’d like to help us spread the word about our project, we’ll be happy to answer your questions: info@caravane.earth

“For the next six months, the gardens behind the church will host an edifice that could not be more of a contrast: a temporary structure made of bamboo and wrapped in handwoven Moroccan textile.”
“The most refreshing contribution to the biennale is a new garden at San Giorgio Maggiore, designed by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan for the Caravane Earth Foundation.”
“The Majlis is one of the most refined and surprising projects among those presented in the collateral events. The result of many souls, many hands and many hearts that beat in unison, it is a concentrate of energy and wisdom that generates harmony.”
“The Majlis was initiated by Caravane Earth, a newly established foundation that aims to promote traditional idea and techniques, as a way to find answers to some of today’s problems.”
“Wrapped in textiles woven in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco by a women’s collective from Ain Leuh, and the local Boujad Tribe, the installation celebrates craftsmanship and the exchange between East and West.”

Team

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Dr Thierry Morel
Curator
Born in France, Thierry is an author, curator, director, producer, critic and art historian. He has worked on projects ranging from exhibitions, books, film, television and museum collaborations across the world. A Rhodes Scholar, he was educated at the University of Oxford in art history. He served as the director of the Hermitage Museum Foundation UK, and curated the award winning exhibition Houghton Revisited, which featured a unique collection of Catherine the Great. Thierry is a Trustee of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London.
Simón Vélez
Majlis Architect
Born in Manizales, Colombia in 1949, Simón Vélez is the son and grandson of architects. Almost 40 years ago, Simón discovered a simple construction technique that revolutionised the way we can build with bamboo. Since then, he has carried out over 300 such projects around the globe. His notable works include the bamboo pavilion in Expo Hannover (2000) and Contemplation (Arles, France 2018).
Stefana Simić
Co-Architect of The Majlis
Stefana was born in New York, and after receiving her undergrad and masters in architecture at Columbia, she travelled to Central Europe to research vernacular architecture. Since 2014, she has been working with Simon in Bogota. Together they have designed projects such as the prefabricated traveling bamboo pavilion, Contemplation Project, and an exhibition at the Biennale di Venezia.
Ahmed Chmiti
Exterior Fabric Design & Production
Growing up in a nomadic family in Boujad, Morocco, Ahmed Chmiti lived in Berber tents, herded sheep and sewed roof panels in his spare time. Now he runs a workshop with 20 craftspeople who weave and knot each tent by hand. He represents a small group of skilled artists who take ancient craft techniques and adapt them for today’s use.
Fahad bin Mohammed Al Attiyah
Managing director of Caravane Earth
Fahad Al-Attiyah is a recognized supporter of global environmental issues and resource sustainability. Driven by true passion for service Mr. Al-Attiyah has gained his expertise through positions as the Executive Chairman to the Qatar National Food Security Programme, delivering a National Food Security Plan for Qatar; a Board Member of the World Water Council and a Legal Counsellor in the Amiri Diwan (official office of the Amir of the State of Qatar). Mr. Al-Attiyah is considered a leading expert on food security in dry lands and has shared his views at multiple events and forums around the globe – UN General Assembly, World Future Energy Summit, Global Green Growth Forum, to name a few. From 2016 to 2020 he served as the Ambassador of Qatar to Russia, working tirelessly to develop partnership and strengthen relations between the two countries.
Rajae El Mouhandiz
Deputy Managing Director of Caravane Earth
Rajae El Mouhandiz is a dutch - Moroccan/Algerian interdisciplinary artist, producer, curator, art consultant and policy advisor, with extensive experience in the arts/culture sector in The Netherlands and abroad. In 2005 she started her own label; Truthseeker records, in 2015 she transformed it into Kahina Productions and in 2019 she launched Ellae Foundation, to counter the gender and culture gap in the arts/cultural sector. Over the years she was an MLT and WISE member and currently she is an Ariane de Rothschild Legacy Fellow. In the last 12 years in a row, she was listed in the arts and culture section of the annual list of the 500 most influential Muslims in the World. More info: rajae.net | ellae.nl
Nina Mohammad-Galbert
Sourcing Partner Africa
Born in Palestine, and raised in California, Nina Mohammad-Galbert is Creative Director at Artisan Project, a pioneer sustainable sourcing and ethical craft production company founded in Fes in 2011 and now based in Tangier, Morocco. Nina works to improve the lives of craftspeople, their families and villages, while ensuring that hand-weaving tradition and skills passed down through generations remain alive. Artisan Project aims to preserve and protect the once nomadic people of Morocco known to most as Berbers. Their true name is ‘Amazigh’ meaning ‘free humans’, and their culture comes with a rich textile history deeply rooted in the landscape.
Prerna Saraff
Textiles and Interiors
Born in Calcutta, Prerna is a graduate of the International Relations program at Sussex University. As a senior buyer for top London fashion retailers, Prerna learned international business strategy, creative direction, project management and product development. In 2015 she left the corporate sector and put her skills to work as a design consultant specializing in sustainability. Eventually, Prerna launched a financial investment firm in the Dubai International Financial Centre.
Galya Bott
Producer
Born to a family of engineers in St. Petersburg, Russia, Galina has lived several professional lives. She has taught Russian poetry in Tennessee; produced a decade-in-the-making experimental film, DAU, on the largest film set in history; and she opened the restaurant Moscow-Dehli which connects organic farmers of India to hungry people in Russia. In 2018, Galya visited the majestic desert of Qatar, a trip which gave birth to a vision of Caravane.
Igor Garin
Art Director
Born in Sokolinaya Gora, Russia, Igor is a clothing, pattern, graphic designer. He has designed clothing for film, fashion, circus, theatre and dance performances since finishing his Masters in Art Clothing Design at Moscow Textile University. He is an art-therapy practitioner and passionate participant in the ethical, slow-and-custom clothing design movement. Igor began working with Galina and Johann as an interior and graphic designer for Moscow-Delhi, painstakingly working out details and textures to turn a 16th-century printing house into a majestic dining experience.
Johnny Cornwell
Partnerships and Symposia
Born in London, Johnny has a background in academic publishing and the arts. His work in partnerships enables companies, individuals and cultural institutions to become patrons and supporters of art exhibitions and academic projects. As Executive Director of the Science and Human Dimension Project, he runs a program for public understanding of science, technology and ethics based at Jesus College in the University of Cambridge. He was director of partnerships for Apollo's Exhibition of the Year 2013, Houghton Revisited. He studied at UCL, Cambridge University, and Imperial College London.
Johnann Bott
Infrastructure and Sustainability
Born in Germany, Johann grew up in a family of French anthroposophists learning craft and farming techniques from a young age. He studied art in Paris, theatre in St. Petersburg, and he founded the theatrical company T. Lab. After meeting Galina on the set of Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s DAU, he committed himself to Moscow-Delhi, an experimental open kitchen in Moscow, transforming a 16th-century Archive for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs into a multicultural and vibrant restaurant.
Irini Gonou
Artist
Born in Athens, Irini Gonou graduated from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts and from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of Paris, where she lived for eleven years. She studied Paleography at the NGB Historical and Paleographical Archive of Athens. She has shown her art work in thirty solo exhibitions in Greece, Cyprus, France, Germany, UK, Belgium, USA, Norway and Egypt.
Leif-Erik Hannikainen
Project Manager
Leif-Erik Hannikainen was born in Merano, Italy in 1979. Grew up in a diplomatic environment and lived in several places around the Globe. He read Modern History at Oriel College, Oxford and graduated in 2003 with a Masters in Byzantine Studies. With UNESCO in the West Bank, especially the Jordan Valley, he worked on Cultural Heritage Management projects. Whilst there he also worked on the coordination of the EU Presidency. Erik spent several years in the Philippines in the luxury goods sector. Since returning to Italy in 2013 he has worked on cultural heritage projects in Rome and the Marche.