The second Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial has revealed the first four installations of its new edition in Al Ain, including a monumental work by Emirati artist Roudhah Al Mazrouei and three pieces at the Unesco-listed Al Qattara Oasis, The National reported on Tuesday, October 27.
A biennial built around the idea of home
Organised by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, the biennial opened in Al Ain on October 23 and will expand to the capital on November 15, running across both cities until February 15, 2027. Its second edition is directed by Elvira Dyangani Ose, former director of the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, under the theme “Home: A Glossary for a Communal Sense of Place”. According to The National, 21 artists and collectives from the UAE and abroad are taking part.
“Home is not only a location. It is a condition: felt before it is understood,” Dyangani Ose told the newspaper, describing the biennial as a glossary of ideas to think with rather than a guide to a single interpretation. She said it was fitting to begin in an oasis landscape shaped by cooperation, shared water and collective care.
In its official announcement, the Department of Culture and Tourism said the initiative “reinforces public art as a civic practice that fosters dialogue, participation, and cultural exchange”.
An heirloom on a roundabout
The only installation within the city itself is Tassa by Roudhah Al Mazrouei, set on Al Towayya Roundabout. The 80-metre-wide work is inspired by a traditional Emirati headpiece from the artist’s family collection, translated into oversized, interlinked red and green beads in triangular, circular, floral and teardrop shapes, set against gold.
“It actually exists in my parents’ house,” Al Mazrouei told The National of the original ornament. The artist, who grew up in Al Ain, said she had conceived the idea years ago and revisited it for the biennial. She previously reworked a bracelet belonging to her mother in Reverie, shown at the 2024 Sikka Art and Design Platform in Dubai.
Three works at Al Qattara Oasis
The other three installations are at Al Qattara Oasis, part of the Cultural Sites of Al Ain inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage list.
Spanish artist Asuncion Molinos Gordo presents Bil Hana wa Al Afia, a rammed-earth structure embedded with household objects, from earthenware and palm reeds to cassette tapes and air-conditioning remote controls. Its root-like forms echo the inner structure of the falaj, the ancient irrigation channels that feed the oasis, while its seven layers stand for periods of Al Ain’s history going back to the Neolithic era.
Indian artist Reena Saini Kallat’s Thresholds: Requiem (The Last Call) uses two pairs of conical devices modelled on early 20th-century acoustic locators, once used to detect approaching aircraft. Arranged on a listening platform, they play the calls of extinct and critically endangered birds, among them the extinct dusky seaside sparrow and the endangered saker falcon.
Moroccan artist M’barek Bouchichi offers I am not the stone thrown into the water, but the seed sown in the field, two stainless steel towers that reinterpret the traditional mud-brick pigeon tower. Their perforated surfaces render traditional Emirati sea shanties in Braille, giving tactile form to the songs sailors sang on long voyages away from home.
Next stop: Abu Dhabi
A second set of works will be unveiled in Abu Dhabi on November 15 at sites including Mina Zayed, Souq Al Mina, Hidd Al Saadiyat and the Saadiyat Cultural District, between the Zayed National Museum and Louvre Abu Dhabi. Most artworks are free to visit, according to the biennial’s official website.
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