The National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia — opened on May 9 — features a new installation by Saudi Palestinian artist S Dana Awartani titled “May your tears never dry, you who weep over stones.” The work, curated by Art Jameel director Antonia Carver and Saudi Iraqi assistant curator Hafsa Alkhudairi, has drawn significant attention for its poignant engagement with cultural heritage at risk.

Awartani’s installation occupies the entirety of the pavilion’s floor, simulating an imagined archaeological site composed of intricate mosaics. The piece references 23 historically significant locations across the Middle East, including sites in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. These sites hold deep cultural and material importance and are recognized by organizations such as UNESCO, the World Monuments Fund, and the ALIPH Foundation for their efforts to preserve threatened legacies. By weaving shared motifs and traditions spanning roughly three millennia, the work highlights the interconnectedness of regional histories.

Drawing from classical Arabic poetry for its title and Awartani’s background in geometric art, the installation underscores the common cultural threads underpinning diverse communities. “Mosaics arose in Mesopotamia and were adopted across cultures over centuries, including in Venice,” Awartani noted, emphasizing the longstanding cultural exchanges that defy simplistic borders.

The installation is the product of a collaborative effort involving 32 artisans working in a studio near Riyadh. Four different types of clay—sourced from across Saudi Arabia—were used to create more than 29,000 handmade bricks, which were sun-baked. The process demanded over 30,000 labor hours, underscoring the craftsmanship and dedication invested in the project.

Central to the work is a meditation on the widespread destruction of cultural heritage sites occurring in real time across the Arab world. Awartani characterized the project as a response to ongoing loss that deeply affects communities regardless of national boundaries. “We don’t want to ignore what’s happening. I can’t,” she said, underscoring the urgency of raising awareness through art.

Curator Antonia Carver described the project’s persistence and growing relevance amid recent years marked by conflict and crisis. She highlighted that recent pro-Palestinian protests at the biennale have amplified engagement with the pavilion’s themes, with audiences responding to its emotional and reflective qualities. Carver praised the collaborative process behind the work’s creation, which blended painstaking research with emotional resonance centered on mourning the disappearance of cultural legacies.

Assistant curator Hafsa Alkhudairi spoke to the powerful emotional impact the installation seeks to evoke, describing it as a space of "devastation" and "immense sadness" for sites that are disappearing irretrievably. Yet she emphasized that the work ultimately aims to inspire hope and a determination to preserve heritage for future generations.

Visitors frequently react to the installation with a sense of awe and reflection, often lowering their voices to contemplate the space’s meditative atmosphere. Carver noted that the deliberate design fosters an experience of pause and contemplation that resonates with diverse audiences.

Awartani stressed that the stones depicted in the mosaics are “not merely stones,” but vessels carrying collective stories and identities across generations. Through this exhibition, she hopes to draw urgent attention to the need for preserving cultural heritage as a shared, human inheritance in an era of ongoing destruction.