The Venice Biennale 2024 was notable for many things, but perhaps none more striking than the presence of Nour Jaouda – at 26, among the youngest artists in the main exhibition, and one of its most affecting voices. Her monumental textile works, with their vivid hues and fluid shapes, stopped visitors in their tracks.
The Artist: Roots and Routes
Born in 1997 in Libya, now based between London and Cairo, Jaouda embodies the contemporary condition of belonging everywhere and nowhere. Her work emerges from this position, using cloth as both material and metaphor for the portable identities of displaced peoples. Trained at Goldsmiths and represented by Union Pacific gallery, she brings institutional credibility to deeply personal concerns.
The Work: Cloth as Memory
Her Venice presentation featured three textile works inspired by her Libyan grandmother's fig trees and the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. Deconstructed cloth, dyed in earthen tones, resewn into sculptural tapestries – each piece carries the trace of hands, of labor, of care. A towering metal gate incorporated Islamic motifs alongside colonial architectural references, creating a dialogue across histories.
The Breakthrough: Institutional Embrace
Works in the collections of Arts Council England, Tate, Hepworth Wakefield, and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi testify to rapid institutional recognition. The inaugural Emery Prize and Hopper Prize finalist status (2021) preceded her Venice triumph.
Why Now? Portable Homes
As millions worldwide navigate displacement, Jaouda's textile works offer meditation on what we carry with us. The portable nature of cloth speaks to portable identities – rolled, folded, transported, unfolded in new contexts.
Conclusion: Threads of Connection
Nour Jaouda's meteoric rise reflects an art world increasingly attentive to narratives of migration and belonging. Her work weaves past and present, here and elsewhere, into fabrics of extraordinary beauty.