Ramadan Pavilion / Victoria & Albert Museum — Shahed Saleem

Photo Matt Rowe

Photo Acacia Diana

Photo Acacia Diana

Photo Acacia Diana

Photo Hyder Dewachi

Photo Peter Kelleher/ V&A

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Ramadan Pavilion
Victoria and Albert Museum
2023

The V&A in collaboration with the Ramadan Tent Project presented the Ramadan Pavilion 2023, a purpose-built architectural installation supported by The Diriyah Biennale Foundation and designed by architect Shahed Saleem and installed in the Exhibition Road Courtyard at V&A South Kensington from 4 March 2023 until 1 May 2023.

The pavilion was a playful representation of a mosque made through the re-composition of traditional mosque elements; dome, minaret, arched doorways, mihrab (prayer niche), and mimbar (stair and pulpit), each of which was derived from a 19th or early 20th century drawing or photograph of historic Islamic architecture from the V&A's collection. The architecture therefore pointed to the collection and interrogated the history of European representation of the Islamic world, asking how might diasporic Muslim identities be imagined and imagine themselves today. The pavilion served as a public and interactive space for visitors as well as hosting series of public events, including a congregational prayer, organised by the Ramadan Tent Project.

With additional support from COSARAF Charitable Foundation, the University of Westminster, RIBA, and AKT II

Timelapse of the installation
Filmmaker Peter Kelleher / V&A

The design and fabrication of the pavilion
Filmmaker Matt Rowe

Somali drumming troupe performace
April 2023

Selected Press

"There is an overall sense of porousness and precarity, suggesting that the new narratives created through the reconstruction of migrant histories and experiences is an ongoing and dynamic process."

— Dezeen

The installation is partly based on a series of watercolours of archetypal and elemental mosque designs Saleem had been making for years. With its dayglo colours and building-block shapes, it looks a little like something made to be built and disassembled, a playground of forms. It leavens the courtyard and seems to make the space more public — an attempt to attract new audiences and visitors.

— Financial Times

Just as the architecture of the pavilion was a reinterpretation of historic mosque elements documented in the museum collection, the use of the space became a reworking of what a mosque space could be. Here the meaning of the mosque was not fixed on a specific religious function but was now malleable to include enjoyment, leisure, culture and learning.

— StirWorld

Migrate Journey/ Chisenhale Gallery

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