Abu Dhabi Biennial Frames Home Through Public Art

Four installations from the second Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial are now on view in Al Ain, where public space, inherited objects and shared resources shape the exhibition’s account of “home.” More works are due to be revealed in Abu Dhabi on November 15. The exhibition runs across both cities until February 15, 2027.

The works take different routes into the biennial’s theme, “Home: A Glossary for a Communal Sense of Place.” One stands at a roundabout; three sit at Al Qattara Oasis, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Artistic director Elvira Dyangani Ose described Al Ain as a place shaped by “co-operation, shared water and collective care.” Those words set a communal frame for an exhibition organized through a biennial and its public installations.

A family heirloom on a roundabout

Roudhah Al Mazrouei’s “Tassa” crowns Al Towayya Roundabout. The installation measures 80 metres in diameter and takes its form from a traditional Emirati headpiece in her family’s collection. Its oversized red and green beads can be seen from a hundred metres away. Up close, triangular, circular, floral and teardrop shapes fan out from the centre in gold, linked together and dotted with beads.

“It actually exists in my parents' house,” Al Mazrouei said. “We've worn it in so many events. It's a way of showing how we grow up with our culture.” She grew up in Al Ain and said the roundabout suited the work because she went to school at the end of the street. “Tassa” is the only installation within the city of Al Ain; the other three are at the oasis.

Al Mazrouei also drew on jewellery for “Reverie,” shown at the 2024 Sikka Art and Design Platform, enlarging her mother’s heirloom bracelet. She conceived “Tassa” years ago, then revisited the project for the biennial. The work moves a family object into a public setting, carrying its maker’s memories and cultural references into a shared urban space.

Water, memory and the meaning of home

At Al Qattara Oasis, Asuncion Molinos Gordo’s “Bil Hana wa Al Afia” uses rammed earth to evoke the inner structure of the falaj. The branching forms recall the irrigation system, which is still used to distribute water on many farms across the country. Seven layers represent historical periods of Al Ain dating to the Neolithic era. Embedded objects, from earthenware and palm reeds to cassettes and air-conditioning remotes, mark changes over time.

Reena Saini Kallat’s “Thresholds: Requiem (The Last Call)” consists of two pairs of conical devices inspired by 20th-century acoustic locators used to detect distant aircraft. On a listening platform, they’re designed to evoke the chirping of extinct and critically endangered birds rather than aircraft engines. Several species migrated through or were native to the UAE or the wider Gulf, including the extinct dusky seaside sparrow and endangered saker falcon.

M'barek Bouchichi’s “I am not the stone thrown into the water, but the seed sown in the field” consists of two stainless-steel pigeon towers. The towers present places of refuge, replacing traditionally used mud bricks with a more resilient material. Their porous patterns render traditional Emirati sea shanties in Braille, offering a tactile representation of sailors’ work songs during arduous journeys away from home.

A glossary without a final definition

Dyangani Ose asked, “What do we mean when we say home?” She said the word is widely used, while many aspects of it go unexamined. “Home is not only a location. It is a condition: felt before it is understood, carried in the body before it is articulated in language.”

She called the biennial a glossary rather than a guide to correct interpretations: “The definitions are partial by design, and yours to complete.” In Al Ain, the installations place family memory, water distribution, endangered birds and sailors’ songs inside that open-ended account. The exhibition’s own framing leaves the definitions unfinished—and invites visitors to supply theirs.