The inaugural Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial begins on November 15, transforming Abu Dhabi into a celebration of culture and community, with works by more than 70 artists installed across Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. The event kicks off with an exciting programme of public activities for people of all ages throughout November, including musical performances, talks, film screenings and more. Keep an eye on the website for the most up to date information as more activities become available: paad.ae/biennial
Week 1 (November 15 – 17)
Friday, November 15:
- 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Bik Van Der Pol performance @ Abu Dhabi Beach
- 6:30 PM: Nabeel Khan performance (20 min) on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage*
- 7:05 PM: Nabeel Khan performance (20 min) on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
- 8:00 PM: Noon Band (40 min) on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
- 9:00 PM: Yarub Smarait Quartet (40 min) on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
*Highlight: Nomadic Stage Events:
Tania Candiani is an interdisciplinary visual artist who employs sound as a tool to reshape perception. Her Nomadic Stage (2024) is an inflatable mobile stage that moves across the city, transforming urban centers into hubs for collective exchange and endowing these spaces with renewed significance. With its modular, lightweight structure and trumpet-like design, the stage invites community participation, creating lasting resonances. Using music as a connective tissue, the stage facilitates crossing cultural and social boundaries, creating new bonds among residents of different backgrounds. Rather than showcasing musical prowess, it aims to reactivate and reshape public space for the people of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
Saturday, November 16:
- 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Remote X Abu Dhabi. Performance by Stefan Kaegi / Jörg Karrenbauer – A computer-generated voice guides you through Abu Dhabi/Al Ain, transforming familiar and unfamiliar locations into scenes from an imaginary film exploring the impact of AI in the cities of the future.
- 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM: Remote X Al Ain
- 6:00 PM: Flex Game @ Shop
- 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM: Curator’s Circle Talk @ Formal Park
- 6:30 PM – 7:00 PM: Talk: Transforming Public Space @ Formal Park
- 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM: Talk: Sustainability through Public Art @ Formal Park
- 7:15 PM: INDIAN INSTRUMENTAL ENSEMBLE on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
- 8:30 PM – 10:30 PM: D-constructing Collective Exhaustion by Afra Al Dhaheri at The National Theater*
*Highlight: Afra Al Dhaheri Performs D-constructing Collective Exhaustion
Type: Performance
Date | Time: Saturday, November 16, 2024, 8:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Location: National Theatre
Description: D-constructing Collective Exhaustion (2024) delves into time and presence, central themes in Afra Al Dhaheri’s practice. Through the installation’s composition of wooden structures, ropes, light, and sound, viewers are encouraged to slow down, engage their senses, and enter a contemplative state. On this special evening, the sound and light design is performed live, later to become part of the work that offers a moment of grounding. Sound performance by Dario Felli and Isa Najem; sound design by Dario Felli; lighting design by Cristian Șimon. Commissioned by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi for the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial 2024–2025.
Accessibility: Fully accessible, children welcome.
Sunday, November 17:
- 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM: Workshop: Abu Dhabi Flaneurs by guBuyoBand @ Al Marsam Al Hor, Cultural Foundation*
- 5:00 PM – 5:30 PM: Talk: An Offer from the desert @ Umm Al Emarat Park
- 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Remote X Abu Dhabi
- 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM: Remote X Al Ain
- 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM: Talk: Barzakh: Sustainable Public Art @ Wael Al Awar, Barzakh
- 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM: Tania’s Stage performances by Khadija
- 6:30 PM – 7:00 PM: Talk: Public Sculpture or Sculpture as Civic Art @ Wael Al Awar, Barzakh
- 7:15 PM: BAO Concert (Trio) on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
*Highlight: Abu Dhabi Flaneurs by guBuyoBand
Type: Workshop
Date | Time: Sunday, November 17, 2024, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Location: Cultural Foundation, Al Marsam Al Hor
Language: English
Description: Abu Dhabi is an amalgam of history, modern heritage, and various patterns. This workshop shares the artist’s perspective in highlighting the development of mental imagery and unconscious perspectives about a familiar neighbourhood. Each participant explores their emotional, psychological, and instinctive bodily experience of place shown through artworks that gradually develop in drawings and sculptures.
Cost: Free, limited space reservation required
Accessibility: Fully accessible.
Week 2 (November 18 – 24):
Monday, November 18:
- 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM: Bik Van Der Pol Performance @ Abu Dhabi Beach
- 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Black Box Cinema_Outdoor Cinema on Corniche at Corniche HUB
- Time TBC: Pawel Althamer live drawing at the Cat Tent
Tuesday, November 19:
- 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM: Talk: Shifting Sands: Architecture & Reclamation @ Abu Dhabi Beach
- 6:30 PM – 7:00 PM: Talk: Performance and community engagement @ Abu Dhabi Beach
- 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM: Talk: Reactivating Public Space @ Abu Dhabi Beach
- 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Black Box Cinema_Outdoor Cinema on Corniche at Corniche HUB
- 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM: Safeya Alblooshi: Found sound(s) في الإمارات Performance on Nomadic Stage*
*Highlight: Safeya Alblooshi: Found sound(s) في الإمارات
Type: Performance
Date | Time: Tuesday, November 19, 2024, 8:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Nomadic Stage, Abu Dhabi Corniche
Language: English
Description: Sound artist Safeya Alblooshi experiments with found sound in participatory performance and installation and is founder of the micro-residency programme Resound UAE. Coinciding with her recent cassette release, Found sound(s) في الإمارات is a sonic collage of field recordings collected in the UAE that will be integrated into a performance of resonant soundscapes.
Cost: Free, reservation required
Accessibility: Fully accessible.
Wednesday, November 20:
- 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM: Talk: Al Sadu in Public Art (In ARABIC) @ House of Artisans
- 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Black Box Cinema_Outdoor Cinema on Corniche at Corniche HUB
Thursday, November 21:
- 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM: Talk: Functionality, Space & Public Art @ The Carpet Souq
- 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Performance by Mohammad Paktiawal and Bakhti Jan Tappay @ Carpet Souq (programmed by Christopher)
- 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Black Box Cinema, Outdoor Cinema on Corniche at Corniche HUB
Friday, November 22:
- 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM: Sonic Lecture by Mo Laudi @ Warehouse421*
- 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Tania’s Stage Performances by Khadija (3 local acts @ Corniche)
- 7:15 PM: BAO Solo (Oud), Qawsaan, and HINDUSTANI CLASSICAL & SEMI-CLASSICAL VOCAL on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
*Recommended: Sonic Lecture: Globalisto–A Symphony for a Community by Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape (DJ Mo Laudi)
Type: Workshop (though described as a listening session, performance, and talk)
Date | Time: Friday, November 22, 2024, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: 421 – Studio 4
Language: English
Description: This listening session, performance, and talk draws on the philosophy of Globalisto–the interplay of sound, memory, and identity in diasporic communities–developed by multidisciplinary artist and curator Ntshepe Tsekere (DJ Mo Laudi). Field recordings and Afro-Electronic compositions are interwoven during this reimagining of the club as a site of shared resistance and healing that encourages sonic mindfulness, ‘post-apartheid transitionalism’ dialogue, and global sociopolitical subcultures.
Cost: Free, reservation required
Accessibility: For people over the age of 15.
Saturday, November 23:
- 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM: Animating the desert by guBuyoBand @ Al Marsam Al Hor, Cultural foundation
- 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Bik Van Der Pol Workshop #1 @ Wael Anwar Pavilion
- 5:00 PM: Remote X AD
- 5:00 PM: Remote X Al Ain
- 6:00 PM: Flex Game @ Shop
- 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM: BAO Duo (Violin, percussion) on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
*Recommended: Animating the Desert by guBuyoBand
Type: Workshop
Date | Time: Saturday, November 23, 2024, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Location: Cultural Foundation, Al Marsam Al Hor
Language: English
Description: Rediscover Abu Dhabi’s natural environment through the imagination of local participants. This workshop starts with a game-like activity (ink battle), then progresses to group activities on large pieces of paper. Participants can share local folktales and stories that take place in the desert, yielding a final painting as an abstract visualization of a landscape created by collective minds.
Cost: Free, limited space reservation required
Accessibility: Fully accessible.
Sunday, November 24:
- 3:30 AM – 6:30 AM: Deepak Unnikrishan – A walk about everything on a night about nothing
- 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM: Bik Van Der Pol Performance @ Abu Dhabi Beach
- 5:00 PM: Remote X Abu Dhabi
- 5:00 PM: Remote X Al Ain
*Recommended: Poetry Workshop #2: ‘A walk about everything on a night about nothing’ within Bik Van der Pol’s The poem that jumps the fence
Type: Workshop
Date | Time: Sunday, November 24, 2024, 3:30 AM – 6:30 AM
Location: Abu Dhabi Bus Terminal
Language: English
Description: Poet and writer Deepak Unnikrishnan asks that participants bring something–even a person–and wear clothing that makes you smile for this walk past street cats, night people, and cafeterias, towards our destination: the beach. One of five poet-led workshops in the context of The poem that jumps the fence (2024) by artist duo Bik Van der Pol (Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol), featuring weekly performances on Abu Dhabi Beach.
Cost: Free, limited space reservation required
Refreshments: Provided
Accessibility: Not suitable for people of determination or adults under the age of 18.
Week 3 (November 25 – 30):
Monday, November 25:
- 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Youth Orchestra on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
- 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Japanese drums on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
- Ongoing: Chalk by Allora & Calzadilla (Interactive Installation, Kid-friendly) – A platform for exchanging ideas and creating a social and political portrait of modern society through public expression.
Tuesday, November 26:
- 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Multaqa – Afro Arab on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
- Ongoing: Chalk
Wednesday, November 27:
- 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Bait Al Oud on Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage
- Ongoing: Chalk
Thursday, November 28:
- 7:00 PM: Community Talks
- Ongoing: Chalk
Friday, November 29:
- 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Community Performances at Tania’s by Khadija
- Ongoing: Chalk
Saturday, November 30:
- 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Frying Pan Adventures
- 6:00 PM: Flex Game @ Shop
- 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Community Performances at Tania’s by Khadija
- Ongoing: Chalk
