Five artists announced for the UAE Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

Entrance to the UAE’s permanent pavilion at la Biennale di Venezia, located at Arsenale - Sale d’Armi in Venice, Italy. Courtesy of National Pavilion UAE

The five artists taking part in the UAE's National Pavilion exhibition for this year's Venice Biennale, announced in today's paper mark the first time non-Emirati artists have been displayed on the prestigious platform of Venice. The exhibition, titled Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play, will include the work of Sara Al Haddad, Vikram Divecha and Lantian Xie, all Dubai-based artists who represent the country's multicultural core. Their work will be alongside Nujoom Alghanem, a poet, artist, scriptwriter and award-winning director from the UAE and Dr. Mohamed Yousif, a founding member of the Emirates Fine Arts Society.

As this is the UAE’s fifth iteration of the Venice Biennale, it feels bold and daring to be presenting such an unusual mix of artists and it remains to be seen how curator Hammad Nasar will present their varied works.

The exhibition questions playfulness, that Nasar says is present in many pieces of art from the UAE. “We are delighted to work with this group of contemporary artists in shaping an exhibition that stages an inter-generational conversation,” says Hammad Nasar. “Through the artists’ diverse and distinctive practices, we believe that this exhibition will bring to life wider cultural and societal ideas around how ‘play’ functions in the world – as a source of vitality and a method of navigation.”