Walking on Water – Mohammed Kazem – UAE Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2013

Representing the UAE at this years Venice Biennale, Mohammed Kazem, presents an immersive work comprised of a 360-degree projection of the sea and illuminated interchangeable GPS coordinates within an enclosed circular space.

This work is one within a binary position, that of the actual and the poetic. Allowing us to be submerged within the moving landscape of the sea. Slightly disorientating the viewer, Kazem sets up an environment that could easily have become theatrical but steadily stays fixed in its place and seriousness. Balancing the panorama of the ocean and all of its romantic connotations, Kazem stabilizes us in reality, perhaps in an uber sense, stating our projected position with absolute accuracy through the means of a Geographical Positioning System (GPS). The execution of his concept existing within a convexed amphitheatre and echoing this circularity in the viewing platform and GPS display Kazem suggests larger notions, both mathematical and romantic, at times harmonising and conflicting both concepts.