Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (AL AIN)
Six Emirati and international artists have lit up Al Ain’s UNESCO-listed oases as part of this season’s Manar Abu Dhabi.
Organised by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), the public light art exhibition is running in Al Ain from November 1, 2025, to January 4, 2026, and Abu Dhabi from November 15, 2025, to January 4, 2026, under the theme “The Light Compass”.
Aletihad spoke to the curators and artists whose work is being displayed at the Al Jimi and Al Qattara oases.
Co-curators Alia Zaal Lootah and Munira Al Sayegh describe how Manar Abu Dhabi 2025 connects contemporary light art with the city’s living heritage.
Lootah said: “In the second edition, we wanted to bring in another landscape of the Emirate - Al Ain - through its beautiful Al Jimi and Al Qattara Oases,” she said.
“Alongside the nature, the vegetation and the trees, we have historic houses protected by UNESCO.”
Al Sayegh explained that this year’s exhibition features two main locations - Al Jubeil Island in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
History and Art
For both curators, the setting itself is integral to the experience.
“When you are working with heritage sites, there has to be a continuity, a kind of conversation that extends forward,” Al Sayegh said.
“One of the most beautiful things during the opening was the seamlessness between the artwork and the place.”
Khai Hori, Artistic Director for Manar Abu Dhabi 2025, framed Al Ain’s oases as both a challenge and an opportunity.
“Al Jimi Oasis is part of the Al Ain UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is a very sensitive site,” he said, noting the buildings “with heritage structures spanning generations”.
Installing contemporary light works there required careful collaboration: “We had to work with the archaeologists to put the right work in the right place.”
Al Ain also offers a new, largely local audience, especially with Manar coinciding with the Traditional Handicrafts Festival.
The Light Compass
This year’s theme, “The Light Compass”, draws on Gulf navigation by moon and stars.
“We were very inspired by the knowledge and tradition of navigation [by celestial light],” Hori explained.
Contemporary works, by contrast, use electricity and solar power, which “you can control, whereas the sun, the moon, the stars, you cannot control”.
Installing new media beside traditional sites echoes that dialogue between heritage and modernity.
The experience is meant to be inward. “A lot of the artworks are very quiet and contemplative,” he said.
Even large-scale pieces “invite you to look inward”, favouring reflection over spectacle.
His message to visitors is: “Pause, take your time, think of possibilities, dream a little, or reflect a little.”
Breath of the Same Place
At Al Jimi, “Breath of the Same Place” unfolds around a ghaf whose light rises and softens with each passerby, letting wind, sound and glow merge until the grove feels alive.
Emirati artist Maitha Hamdan said the work is meant to be “a captivating and interactive visual experience”, inviting visitors to move slowly, feel the shifts in light and air, and sense the grove breathing with them.
She said: “I wanted to create a magical atmosphere, a visual and interactive scene, so that when someone sits under this tree, they feel a scene that compels them to stop and reflect.”
She added that sound and interactive lighting play a fundamental role in the experience, noting that “the tree reacts to the sensory lighting in a way that pulsates or seems to breathe. I wanted to give this scene a sense of life, as if you are sitting under a living being, not an inanimate object”.
Hamdan wanted the visitor to feel connected to the spirit of nature, to feel a connection to the place, so she used fibre optics to manifest the idea. “I translate it through fibre optics in a beautiful way that brings light and darkness together in the same space.”
The artist shares a personal connection with the location, saying: “I have special childhood memories here, and I loved it dearly. I am glad that was able to add something to the place I love.”
Cycle of Circles
Another artwork is “Cycle of Circles”, gathering five light-box self-portraits made as the artist cycles, creating a continuous circle - motion becoming performance and meditation.
The loop links body and place, echoing celestial cycles and time.
Emirati artist and photographer Ammar Al Attar documents performance art with photography.
He explained: “Performance art means you create a work of art in front of an audience or document it in a way that involves photos, videos or writing.”
He said he became preoccupied with the idea of repetition and daily routine and their psychological and visual impact.
“I was creating works about repetition and boredom in daily routines, how to embody this meaning in photographs,” he said.
To visually test the concept, he used a bicycle, repeatedly drawing a circle on the ground while trying to maintain his balance. “I used the bicycle. I try to make the circle on the ground and at the same time try not to fall.”
This choice was not accidental. As he explained: “The bicycle represents continuity and movement, and at the same time, you need balance to complete it.”
Viewers interpret the circular mark on the ground in various ways, from seeing it as a small temporal crater to a mark left by silent repetition.
Al Attar deliberately leaves room for interpretation, considering the viewer a partner in producing meaning.
“I give the viewer space to question, reflect, and think according to their culture, their own perspective, and their view of things,” he said.
