During the opening days of the Venice Art Biennale, Palestinian interdisciplinary artist Dalia Jacobs participated in JUST! – Bodies, Relationships, and Rights in Space, the international symposium on spatial justice organized by IUAV University of Venice. The symposium brought together international artists, researchers, curators, and practitioners to reflect on the relationship between bodies, ecologies, space, and rights through artistic, theoretical, and performative practices.

At the symposium, Jacobs presented Migrant Soil, an installation reflecting on migration, land, and the unequal conditions that shape mobility and belonging. The work begins from soil as a material commonly tied to origin, territory, and identity, but here presented as displaced — carried on fabric that acts as a temporary and fragile ground. The soil becomes material in transit, detached from fixed territory while still holding memory of place.

The installation takes the form of an enclosed structure that cannot be entered, only observed from the outside. This spatial condition reflects systems such as borders, airports, and checkpoints that regulate who can move freely and who is excluded. Inside the structure, a projection and an audio piece remain visible and audible yet inaccessible, creating a condition of distance between the viewer and the contained space.

The projected video presented within the installation is part of an ongoing collaboration between Dalia Jacobs and Ludovica Anzaldi developed through the project Reclaiming Venus, filmed in Sicily. The audio element includes excerpts from Denied Entry, a performance developed in collaboration with Andi Dhima and presented during Umbra Project Festival in Greece, where Jacobs reflects on experiences of detention, denied entry, and deportation.

Through soil, sound, projection, and spatial restriction, Migrant Soil creates what Jacobs describes as a “contained territory”: a space that functions as land or zone while remaining enclosed, controlled, and inaccessible. The viewer encounters the work from outside, positioned in relation to distance, restriction, and partial visibility.

The installation forms part of Jacobs’ ongoing artistic research rooted in the exilic Palestinian experience and shaped by years of movement across the Mediterranean. Working across photography, performance art, video, and immersive audiovisual installation, her practice moves between the personal and political, exploring how histories of displacement are carried within bodies, landscapes, and everyday gestures. Through material and spatial interventions, Jacobs reflects on migration, grief, resilience, memory, and belonging.