The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi has revealed four new public art installations in Al Ain, marking the opening of the second edition of the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial. The works went on public view today, October 27, and will remain on display until February 15 next year, with further pieces for Abu Dhabi city due to be unveiled on November 15.
The centrepiece among the Al Ain works is Tassa by Roudhah Al Mazrouei, a sculptural piece crowning Al Towayya Roundabout, an 80-metre-diameter traffic island. Three further installations sit at Al Qattara Oasis, a Unesco World Heritage Site: Bil Hana wa Al Afia by Asuncion Molinos Gordo, Thresholds: Requiem (The Last Call) by Reena Saini Kallat, and a piece by M'barek Bouchichi built around the image of a seed sown in a field rather than a stone thrown into water.
Artistic director Elvira Dyangani Ose framed the biennial's guiding theme by saying that "home is not only a location. It is a condition: felt before it is understood." The four commissions lean into that idea, using public space to explore belonging, memory and the relationship between people and place.
By staging contemporary installations inside a living Unesco oasis alongside a major modern roundabout, the biennial deliberately juxtaposes Al Ain's ancient heritage with new artistic practice. Abu Dhabi's culture department has described the biennial as part of a wider strategy to position the emirate among the region's leading destinations for contemporary public art, complementing other cultural investments across the capital and its historic sites.