Emirati fellows trained and based in Venice for a month long tenure managing the National Pavilion art exhibition from 29th May to 24 November 2013. Curator Reem Fadda presents the artist Mohammed Kazem.

Initiated in 2009, the National Pavilion runs this specialized opportunity to train UAE nationals to not only take part in the Venice Biennale but to also create a legacy of highly skilled art practitioners in the UAE equipped to take the national contemporary art and cultural scene boldly into the future. The Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation will be supporting the Venice Internship for the first time.

Also for the first time the Venice Internship will be partnering with the Department of Asian and North African studies at the prestigious Ca’ Foscari University Venice which will facilitate the inclusion of six specially selected Italian interns working side-by-side with the Emiratis. This partnership has been developed to foster a true exchange of cultures between the interns and to allow Emirati’s to engage further with Italian customs, language and knowledge thus enhancing their local experience in Venice.

Once awarded a place in the program, the specially selected Emirati interns, drawn from across the UAE, are trained in a basic framework for conversing in the arts in order to engage fluently with the content of the exhibition.  They will also have the opportunity to work alongside distinguished curator Reem Fadda, the National Pavilion office, and select practitioners from the greater UAE art scene in the lead-up to the Biennale.

This group of 18 interns will then go to Venice to serve in the national pavilion as Exhibition Managers while engaging in a comprehensive art educational program based on the extraordinary art and cultural institutions in Venice and the temporary exhibitions of the Biennale.

Recruitment for the Venice Internship will formally begin at the dedicated booth at Abu Dhabi Art from the 7th to 10th of November 2012. An information booth will be set up whereby interested parties may apply to participate in the program or simply engage with staff and volunteers to find out more about the opportunity for 18 Emiratis to spend up to 4 weeks each in Venice from May to December 2013.