Abu Dhabi unveils its first Public Art Biennale: an exploration of "public matter"
November 15, 2024, marks a pivotal moment for Abu Dhabi's art scene with the launch of its first-ever Public Art Biennale, a monumental event running until April 30, 2025. Organized by Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT), the Biennale brings together more than 70 local and international artists around a bold theme: "public matter." The event aims to redefine art in public spaces by creating a series of works accessible to all, fostering a collective reappropriation of public areas.
The event unfolds across Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, offering direct access to art installations that question and magnify urban landscapes, while drawing on the city's unique cultural and environmental realities. The Biennale thus becomes a meeting point between contemporary creations and the daily lives of residents, a space for exchange where people are invited to reimagine their relationship to public space.
The theme of "public matter" is rooted in the modern challenges facing the city: how can art respond to urban dynamics, how can it interact with natural elements and local history? The installations, often in dialogue with their surroundings, explore how art can unfold in a shared, living, and ever-changing space. They invite reflection on the artist's place in the city and on the role of art in shaping public identity.
Internationally renowned artists such as Oscar Murillo, Farah Al Qasimi, and Zeinab Alhashemi were invited to create site-specific works for iconic locations in Abu Dhabi. Murillo presents a monumental canvas along the Corniche, a creation that unfolds like a vast fresco between the sea and the city, creating a visual bridge between art and architecture. Al Qasimi, for her part, has designed sound installations, an invitation to immerse oneself in the sounds of the world, where the ocean, this vital link to the Emirates, resonates poetically through sounds and acoustic atmospheres that remind us of the omnipresence of the sea in the local culture.
Arquitectura Expandida, a creative collective, transforms the ordinary into the exceptional with interactive installations that shape urban spaces into places of dialogue. These works, which appear in the thoroughfares of everyday life, blur the line between the everyday and art, making the latter accessible to all, in the places where people meet, interact, and live. Through these creations, the Biennale seeks to re-establish an intimate and direct connection between the artwork and the public, an art without barriers, which makes itself seen and heard in everyday spaces.
The Public Art Biennale reflects the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism's (DCT) strong commitment to strengthening the emirate's cultural identity, while engaging the community in a vibrant dialogue about local values and history. Rita Aoun, Executive Director of the Cultural Sector, explains that this event is an invitation to connect with Abu Dhabi's "history, aesthetics, and societal values," while celebrating art in all its forms. The Biennale embodies this fusion of art and the city, an exploration of public space as a place for exchange, reflection, and reinvention.
By offering free access to innovative works, the Public Art Biennale transforms Abu Dhabi into an essential artistic hub, a place where art lives and breathes in rhythm with the city. By turning public spaces into open galleries, creating areas for reflection and sharing, this event becomes a true invitation to redefine the urban experience through art. Whether they are residents
Whether from abroad or elsewhere, visitors are invited to immerse themselves in a vibrant artistic world, rooted in local values, while also reflecting global concerns.
With this Biennale, Abu Dhabi is resolutely positioning itself as a leading destination for public art, where art becomes a vector of encounter, openness and transformation, accessible to all, in everyday life.
Public Art Biennial
Various locations in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain (United Arab Emirates)
From November 15, 2024 to April 30, 2025
