MUSCAT: His Highness Sayyid Theyazin Bin Haitham Al Said, Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, will patronise the opening ceremony of the Sultanate of Oman’s National Pavilion at the 59th Venice International Art Fair on Thursday, April 21.

The art fair will be held from April 23 to November 27 in the Republic of Italy. The Sultanate of Oman, which is participating in this biennial for the first time, which is one of the most prestigious international art festivals, aims to introduce Omani culture at the local and global levels.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth aspires for the Sultanate’s participation in the exhibition to be qualitative, enhance its cultural position and reflect its directions to achieve the Oman 2040 vision in the cultural field at the local and international levels.

The participation also comes within the framework of strategic programs that enhance the external communication of the Sultanate of Oman and the cultural strategy in its axes of exchanging experiences at the external level in the cultural field. This would enhance the communication and cultural dialogue between the countries of the world, and investing cultural diversity as a means of promotion and definition.

The Venice International Fair is one of the most important international cultural and artistic festivals that plays a prominent role in achieving many cultural gains for countries, and highlighting their civilisational status.

Various countries of the world would be participating through the permanent pavilions established by countries for the event, or that are held around the city in various artistic places such as museums and galleries.

The number of visitors to the exhibition annually ranges from 600,000 to one million visitors from all over the world, while the number of views of the festival’s website reaches 10 million, and the event is covered by about 8,100 international media bodies and international press agencies.

This international event provides a unique global platform for the Sultanate of Oman to bring contemporary Omani plastic artists to the World Art Fair and engage in a mutual artistic dialogue between other national pavilions with a distinguished Omani show.

The inaugural exhibition brings together selected works by three generations of Omani artists who span five decades of modern and contemporary visual art in the Sultanate. The exhibition will provide a glimpse into Oman’s cultural history and unique traditions in the visual arts on a global scale.

The participating artists represent an example of an extended path of influence in Omani art during the past fifty years until today, among them: artist Anwar Sonia, artist Hassan Meer, artist Bodour Al Riyami, Radhika Khimji, and the late artist Raya Al Rawahi.