The National Pavilion UAE has announced that its exhibition for the 2026 Venice Biennale will be Washwasha, a six-artist show curated by Bana Kattan and assistant curator Tala Nassar.
Opening to the public on May 9 and running until November 22, the exhibition will feature works by Mays Albaik, Jawad Al Malhi, Farah Al Qasimi, Alaa Edris, Lamya Gargash and Taus Makhacheva.
The six artists were born in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, East Jerusalem and Moscow, and several live and work in the UAE or between the UAE and other cities, including New York.
Taking its title from the onomatopoeic Arabic word for “whispering”, Washwasha looks at contemporary soundscapes in the UAE and the ways they carry memory, movement and rapid transformation.
The exhibition brings together work shaped by migration, transience and long-term ties to the land, while also drawing on oral histories, technology and the relationship between language, body and identity.
“The central idea of Washwasha comes from the word itself,” Kattan tells The National. "Instead of layered exhibition titles and interpretive frameworks, Washwasha insists on simplicity.”
While the initial invitation to the artists in the exhibition was open-ended, the responses that emerged were deeply personal, shaped by individual sensibility, yet grounded in shared forms of experience, Kattan explains.
“What unfolded was not a thematic directive imposed from above, but an accumulation of intuitive gestures in which the personal became a point of entry into the collective. Taken together, these contributions resist a singular narrative or definition of washwasha. Rather than representing the term, the works activate it, exploring what washwasha can be or do."
Kattan was selected by a committee of figures from the UAE’s creative sector, including representatives from government, museums and universities, following a proposal process. She chose the artists for the ways their work engages with sound, memory, language and movement, and for the depth of their connections to the UAE.
“All six artists have strong ties to the UAE, whether through birth, long-term residence, education, or sustained professional engagement,” she says. “Their practices have developed within, alongside, or in dialogue with the UAE’s evolving cultural ecosystem.”
The pavilion places the works within longer histories of listening in the UAE, from oral storytelling and poetry circles to locally driven broadcasting efforts. It also traces how changes in architecture, infrastructure and technology have shaped the way communities hear and are heard, linking earlier collective sound practices with more mediated forms of listening.
“The selection also reflects the demographic and cultural plurality of the UAE, bringing together artists with lived connections to the country,” Kattan says. “The exhibition is intentionally multi-generational, presenting established and mid-career artists whose practices engage deeply with sound, language, and memory, while offering distinct artistic methodologies.”
Inside the pavilion, designed by Buro Koray Duman Architects, visitors will move through a sequence of chambers that shift from close listening to spaces shaped by sonic overlap and noise. A publication of essays and conversations will accompany the exhibition, approaching sound from historical, personal and theoretical perspectives.
The 2026 presentation will mark the National Pavilion UAE’s ninth participation in the Venice Biennale’s international art exhibition. Two of the participating artists, Alaa Edris and Mays Albaik, are also alumnae of the pavilion’s Venice internship programme.
