VANCOUVER, CANADA – The Vancouver Biennale announces the first installation in its 2018-2020 exhibition. The organization that has brought some of the most memorable public art to the city will launch its fourth edition with “Paradise Has Many Gates”, by Saudi Arabian artist Ajlan Gharem.

 

The installation is designed in the architectural form of an Islamic mosque. What makes this mosque unusual, beyond its temporary location in Vanier Park, is that it’s made out of chain-link fence, which is more commonly used to keep the unauthorized out or the imprisoned in. The mosque evokes multiple meanings and feelings; the generational divide between young and old, the designation of sacred space and its meaning within different cultures, the role of religious belief and our search for new knowledge and ways of living, the power struggle between religious constraint and democratic freedom.

Learn More