VENICE.- The National Pavilion United Arab Emirates (UAE) La Biennale di Venezia at the 56th International Art Exhibition officially opened on Thursday, May 7, with a ribbon cutting by H.E. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development.
The pavilion is commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, and supported by the UAE Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development. Titled 1980 – Today: Exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates, this is the UAE’s fourth national pavilion at the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, the exhibition features 100 diverse works by 15 Emirati artists, and aims to create dialogues across artist practices to explore the emergence of contemporary art in the UAE over the past four decades.
Notable guests at the opening ceremony included H.E. Saqer Nasser Ahmed Abdullah Alraisi, Ambassador of the UAE in Rome; H.E. Noora Juma, UAE Consul General in Milan; Dr. Salvatore LaSpada, Executive Director of the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation; and Ms. Khulood Al Atiyat, Manager of Arts, Culture & Heritage of the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation. Other VIP attendees included international curators, directors and tours from the Tate, MoMA, Guggenheim, Studio Museum Harlem, Serpentine Gallery, Pompidou, M+, Ullens (UCCC), Asia Art Archive, de Appel, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, LACMA, Creative Time, New Museum, British Museum, Whitechapel, Royal Academy, Aspen Art Museum, MACRO (Rome), National Gallery of Ireland, Contemporary Art Center Thessaloniki, Himalayas Museum, Qatar Museums Authority, Art Basel, Sotheby's, Christie's, CIMAM, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah Museums Department, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, Tourism and Culture Authority Abu Dhabi, Delfina Foundation, Garage (Moscow), Pinchuk Art Center (Kiev), Ashkal Alwan (Beirut), Beirut (Cairo), Cobra Museum (Netherlands), Sabanci Museum (Turkey), MAMBA (Buenos Aires), Nationalgalerie (Berlin), National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Koji Biennial, Prospect New Orleans, and Lyon Biennial, as well as museum trustees Phil & Shelley Aarons, and Beth Swofford.
Participating artists in attendance included: Ahmed Al Ansari, Moosa Al Halyan, Mohammed Al Qassab, Abdul Qader Al Rais, Abdullah Al Saadi, Salem Jawhar, Mohammed Kazem, Dr. Najat Meky, Abdulraheem Salim, Ahmed Sharif, Obaid Suroor, Dr. Mohamed Yousif, and Abdulrahman Zainal.
