Middle Eastern artists did not win any of the major prizes at the Venice Biennale, which opened to the public on June 1 and will run through Nov. 24, but they have made a good showing nevertheless.

The Iraqi pavilion was pioneering in its debut, an Emirati artist made the rounds on social media and as Al-Monitor’s Cengiz Candar reported, “All the Turks at [the] Venice Biennale gathered at San Marco plaza to support Istanbul,” as protests erupted around their country. In a region rife with turmoil, many of the artists represented had something in common — cutting-edge multimedia work.

On the eve of the public opening, Turkish artists, curators and collectors came together to share information about the clashes at home. They tried to express solidarity with a short march, and the air in the room was far less celebratory than it otherwise would have been, according to The Art Newspaper. Fusun Eczacibasi, Orhan Pamuk and Emre Baykal were among the Turkish personalities at the art fair sharing Facebook pictures and posts. Ali Kazma, a video artist, represented Turkey at its pavilion this year with the piece above aptly titled Resistance.