Between ڪثرة and Modernity: Kuwait's Political Interventions at The Venice Biennale of Architecture

Following the discovery and exploitation of oil, from the 1930s onwards Kuwait City became an architectural playground. Originally designed mainly by Western visionaries in order to implant into and impose onto this part of the Gulf region what they understood by modernity and the modern craft of architecture. In 2012 Kuwait participated at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition for the first time. Under the curatorship of Zahra Ali Baba, a team of architects, sound designers and visual artists developed a contribution that was not only quite experimental but also very political. Their work sought to illustrate the multiplicity of Kuwait and soon developed into a critical investigation and re-appropriation of the ambivalent history of Kuwait City as well as the whole country in the 20th century.