Among the gardens and historic houses in Al Ain’s oases are seven light artworks, illuminating the area and bringing a contemporary edge to a beautiful and culturally significant space.
Manar Abu Dhabi has expanded beyond the capital this year with a new addition that merges light, heritage and community in one of the UAE’s most storied landscapes.
Under the theme The Light Compass, the festival’s curators – artistic director Khai Hori, along with Munira Al Sayegh, Alia Zaal Lootah and Mariam Alshehhi – have transformed Al Jimi and Al Qattara oases into glowing open-air galleries. The sites, both on the Unesco World Heritage list, now host installations by Emirati and international artists, including Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Khalid Shafar, Maitha Hamdan, Abdalla Almulla, Ammar Al Attar and Christian Brinkmann.
The expansion marks a significant evolution for Manar Abu Dhabi, which began in 2023 with installations across coastal and urban areas of the capital. Now, the festival moves inland, connecting audiences to the quieter rhythms of Al Ain while continuing its mission to celebrate Abu Dhabi as a hub for cultural innovation and contemporary public art.
For Hori, who is curating in the Gulf for the first time, bringing Manar Abu Dhabi to Al Ain is both a logistical and poetic journey. “It’s alive, but it’s empty at the same time,” he says. “People often associate darkness with solitude or sadness, but it doesn’t have to be that way. With art, darkness can also be a celebration of the light you can find within it.”
Navigating the darkness
Installing art within such a sensitive environment required a delicate approach. Al Jimi and Al Qattara are among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the region, and every artwork was positioned with care. “To install the artworks, we collaborate with archaeologists,” Hori explains. “It’s not a straightforward process, but through it we learn more about the heritage of the oasis.”
This collaboration embodies Manar Abu Dhabi’s guiding idea: that light art is not only about illumination, but about revealing histories and connections. In Al Ain, that relationship is both literal and symbolic. The theme The Light Compass focuses on navigation through the stars, the moon and the knowledge that once guided desert travellers and seafarers alike.
This concept of navigation is explored on another level with Al Attar’s piece Cycle Of Circles. Presented in five sequential photographs, they show the artists in the process of making a circle while riding a bicycle.
Speaking on the meaning of his artwork, Al Attar says it’s about moving through life and through routines. How we often find ourselves back at the starting spot again and again yet must continue to move through life.
Al Sayegh, who co-curated the Al Ain sites, says the move inland was a natural extension of that idea. “Public art should extend itself to everyone, that’s the most romantic and ideal vision of it,” she says. “This year’s theme, navigation, is not only relevant to the people of the sea, but also to those who lived alongside the oases.”
By bringing Manar Abu Dhabi from the coastline to the desert, the team explored the dialogue between spaces that are bustling and those that are contemplative. “What happens when we move Manar away from the coast, from saltwater to freshwater?” Al Sayegh asks. “The same stars are guiding different waters, that contrast became really interesting for us.”
Past and present
Manar Abu Dhabi’s expansion into Al Ain is also a reflection of the city’s unique position within the UAE’s cultural landscape. “We often think of heritage and contemporary life as separate, but here they coexist,” says Al Sayegh. “This edition embraces that reality. It bridges the historical with the now.”
The artworks invite audiences to move through a sensory journey of light, sound, and space. The effect is both meditative and communal, with each piece guiding visitors along pathways that once connected ancient settlements and trade routes.
This introspective nature can be felt with two artworks, Maitha Hamdan’s Breath of the Same Place and Khalid Shafar’s Sadu Red Carpet. Hamdan’s piece drapes a lonely ghaf tree with luminescent wiring that give the plant a soft energy. Guests can sit under it watch as the colours of the lights change.
In Shafar’s piece, a pathway is illuminated with red lights that make it look like a carpet made of sadu prints. Shafar says he wanted the piece to convey the welcomeness and openness of Emirati culture. Walking on the path, visitors feel like celebrities walking down a festival’s red carpet, despite being in a quiet and calm Al Ain oasis.
For Hori, this quieter approach defines Manar Abu Dhabi’s evolving identity. “The artworks this year are rather quiet,” he says. “They want you to pause and peel off layers of what they could mean.”
Art made accessible
Bringing public art closer to the people is a mission Hori takes seriously. “A society without an appreciation for aesthetics becomes mechanical," he says. “Bringing art outdoors is a way of inviting people in.”
The installations at Al Ain do not simply occupy space; they punctuate it. “It’s about adding light to light – creating moments of pause, contemplation, agreement, or even disagreement as people move through the space,” Al Sayegh explains. “This time, we’re bringing art into populated areas, whereas the first edition was about populating emptier ones.”
Visitors can explore Al Jimi and Al Qattara through guided tours, photography workshops and food and beverage pop-ups designed to enhance the sense of community around the works. These elements transform the festival from a passive viewing experience into an active dialogue between art, place and people.
Light that connects
As day fades to night, the oases of Al Ain glow with quiet energy. Trees cast soft shadows against illuminated pathways; water channels reflect shifting patterns of light. Each installation becomes part of a constellation – a continuation of the same stars that have guided journeys across the region for centuries.
“People often think of the dark as something lonely,” Hori says, looking out across the oasis. “But when you have all this art, it becomes a celebration of the light you could see in the dark.”
For Al Sayegh, that light is also a metaphor for the next generation. “Public art should be for everyone,” she says. “It’s not only about beauty, but about understanding who we are and how we connect to the world around us.”
Manar Abu Dhabi 2025 runs to January 4 in Al Ain, and from November 15 to January 4 in Abu Dhabi
