Manar Abu Dhabi expands from coast to desert, bringing light to Al Ain’s oases - Salaam
Assalamu alaikum - Among the gardens and old houses of Al Ain’s oases, six light artworks now brighten the area, adding a modern touch to a place rich in culture and history.
Manar Abu Dhabi has grown beyond the capital this year, adding a new chapter that blends light, heritage and community in one of the UAE’s most treasured landscapes.
Under the theme The Light Compass, the festival’s curators - artistic director Khai Hori together with Munira Al Sayegh, Alia Zaal Lootah and Mariam Alshehhi - have turned Al Jimi and Al Qattara oases into open-air galleries at night. Both sites are on the UNESCO World Heritage list and now feature works by Emirati and international artists, including Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Khalid Shafar, Maitha Hamdan, Abdalla Almulla, Ammar Al Attar and Christian Brinkmann.
This move inland is a notable step for Manar Abu Dhabi, which began in 2023 with pieces across the capital’s coast and city areas. Now the festival reaches Al Ain, inviting people to the quieter pace of the oases while continuing to celebrate Abu Dhabi as a centre for cultural creativity and contemporary public art.
For Hori, curating in the Gulf for the first time, taking Manar to Al Ain was both a practical and poetic project. “It’s alive, but it’s empty at the same time,” he says. “People often link darkness with solitude or sadness, but it doesn’t have to be that way. With art, darkness can also highlight the light you find within it.”
Installing artworks in such a sensitive place demanded care. Al Jimi and Al Qattara are among the region’s oldest continuously inhabited settlements, and each piece was placed thoughtfully. “To install the artworks, we collaborate with archaeologists,” Hori explains. “It’s not straightforward, but through it we learn more about the oasis’s heritage.”
That teamwork captures Manar Abu Dhabi’s main idea: light art does more than light up space - it reveals histories and connections. In Al Ain this idea is both literal and symbolic. The Light Compass theme points to navigation by stars, moon and the knowledge that once guided desert travellers and sailors alike.
Al Attar’s Cycle Of Circles explores navigation and routine in another way. Shown as five sequential photographs, it captures the artist making circles while riding a bicycle. He says the work is about moving through life and routines, how we often end up near where we began but still must keep going.
Al Sayegh, co-curator of the Al Ain sites, feels moving inland fit naturally with the theme. “Public art should reach everyone - that’s the romantic, ideal vision,” she says. “Navigation isn’t only for people of the sea; it mattered to those who lived by the oases too.”
Taking Manar from coastline to desert let the team look at how lively and contemplative places talk to each other. “What happens when we move Manar away from the coast, from saltwater to freshwater?” Al Sayegh asks. “The same stars guide different waters, and that contrast was really interesting.”
The festival’s presence in Al Ain also highlights the city’s special place in the UAE’s cultural life. “We often separate heritage and modern life in our minds, but here they live together,” Al Sayegh says. “This edition brings that out - it links the past with the present.”
The installations guide visitors through a sensory experience of light, sound and space that feels both meditative and communal. Each work leads people along paths that once connected old settlements and trade routes.
That introspective mood shows in Maitha Hamdan’s Breath of the Same Place and Khalid Shafar’s Sadu Red Carpet. Hamdan wraps a solitary ghaf tree in glowing wiring so the tree takes on a gentle energy; people can sit beneath it and watch the colours shift. Shafar lights a pathway in red to resemble a carpet patterned with sadu prints; he wanted to express the warmth and hospitality of Emirati culture. Walking the path feels special, like being welcomed into a calm, festive space.
Hori says this quieter tone is shaping Manar Abu Dhabi’s identity. “This year’s artworks are quieter,” he notes. “They invite you to pause and uncover layers of meaning.”
Bringing art into public spaces matters to him. “A society that doesn’t value beauty becomes mechanical,” he says. “Taking art outdoors is an invitation for people to connect.”
The Al Ain installations don’t just fill space - they punctuate it. “It’s about adding light to light - creating moments of pause, reflection, even conversation as people move through,” Al Sayegh explains. “This time, we’re bringing art into populated areas, while the first edition filled emptier ones.”
Visitors can join guided tours, photography workshops and food stalls that help build community around the works. These activities turn the festival from a passive visit into an active exchange between art, place and people.
As evening falls, Al Ain’s oases glow softly. Trees cast gentle shadows along lit paths; water channels mirror shifting patterns. Each installation becomes part of a constellation - a reminder of the stars that guided journeys across the region for generations.
“People often view darkness as loneliness,” Hori says, looking over the oasis. “But with all this art, it becomes a celebration of the light you can find in the dark.”
For Al Sayegh, that light points to the next generation. “Public art is for everyone,” she says. “It’s not just about beauty, but about understanding who we are and how we connect to the world.”
Manar Abu Dhabi 2025 runs to January 4 in Al Ain, and from November 15 to January 4 in Abu Dhabi.
Wassalam.
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