The Saudi Ministry of Culture has announced A Necessary Fiction: Maps, Art, and Models of Our World, a new exhibition to be held at the Abbazia di San Gregorio in Venice, Italy. Coinciding with the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, the exhibition will run from 6 May to 22 November 2026.
The exhibition is curated by an international team led by Sara Almutlaq and Aurora Fonda, with Zaira Carrer and Amina Diab serving as associate curators. Working in close collaboration with exhibition designers Ibrahim Kombarji and Bianca Pedron, the team has created a dynamic perspective on cartography that spans centuries and continents.
A Necessary Fiction serves as a journey through territories in constant flux. By featuring historical maps and objects, dating from the thirteenth century to the present alongside contemporary artworks and new commissions, the exhibition examines the enduring human need to create models of the world. These models offer fantastic mythological visions and imaginative interpretations of scientific inquiry throughout the ages.
Early modern maps, loaned from major global institutions, are placed in conversation with contemporary pieces. European maps depicting the Arabian Peninsula as Arabia deserta contrast with first-century CE historical artifacts, such as incense burners, and eighteenth-century decorative manuscripts from the region, illustrating the legacy of trade and multifaceted cultural interaction that has long defined the area.
The exhibition highlights include acourtyard installation by Nasser Al Salem and site-specific works by Matilde Sambo guide visitors through the colonnade of the Abbazia di San Gregorio. A site-specific installation on the Abbazia’s façade by Monira Al Qadiri reconnects viewers to the journeys Arab travellers made to Northern Europe one thousand years ago. Artists Shilpa Gupta and Reena Saini Kallat investigate the transient nature of maps, while Manal AlDowayan extends the sense of belonging provided through cartography to the geographical landscapes of AlUla. Works by Trevor Paglen and Eva & Franco Mattes explore a world navigated via digital interfaces, often at the expense of a direct connection to our surroundings. Giorgio Andreotta Calò’s walking pieces serve as a call to reclaim the physical experience of geography, while Yoko Ono invites visitors to imagine their own personal maps.
The role of fiction in cartography is further illustrated through a novella by Tod Wodicka, presented as a sound installation by Abdullah Miniawy.
Curators Sara Almutlaq and Aurora Fonda state: “A Necessary Fiction offers both a critical and contemplative reflection on the contemporary cartographies we inhabit. By unravelling the fictions, allegories, and collective myths that have produced the cartographic, the exhibition reveals the invisible ideologies that have shaped our worlds, allowing us to reflect on how our collective understanding of difference and belonging has been formed across time.”
Exhibiting artists
Sarah Abu Abdallah, Monira Al Qadiri, Abdulmohsen Albinali, Manal AlDowayan, Marwah Almugait, Nasser Al Salem, Aseel AlYaqoub, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Agnes Denes, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Öyvind Fahlström, Simone Fattal, Basmah Felemban, Enej Gala, Shilpa Gupta, Reena Saini Kallat, Ibrahim Mahama, Ahmed Mater, Eva & Franco Mattes, Abdullah Miniawy, Filwa Nazer, Yoko Ono, Trevor Paglen, Matilde Sambo, Wael Shawky, Tavares Strachan, Giuditta Vendrame, Tod Wodicka, and Qiu Zhijie.
Participating institutions
The exhibition features items from several major institutions, including the King Abdulaziz Public Library (Riyadh), the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archive (Riyadh), the Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana (Vicenza), the Cremona State Library, the Saudi National Museum (Riyadh), Leiden University Libraries, and the Qatar National Library (Doha).
