The inaugural 2023 edition of Manar Abu Dhabi placed more than 35 light-based commissions across the emirate’s islands, mangroves, waterfronts and urban spaces.
Titled Grounding Light, the exhibition brought artists from more than 13 countries into direct relationship with Abu Dhabi’s coastal environment.
Art distributed across land and water
The programme included sculpture, projection, immersive installation and site-specific work.
Locations extended across Lulu, Saadiyat, Yas, Jubail, Al Samaliyah and Fahid islands, as well as the Corniche, Mina Zayed and the Eastern Mangroves.
A 2.3-kilometre route allowed visitors to encounter several works through movement along the waterfront rather than inside one central gallery.
Participating artists included Ahmed Al Areef Al Dhaheri, Alaa Edris, Asma Belhamar, Ayman Zedani, Carsten Höller and Groupe F.
Light interpreted through local geography
Artistic director Reem Fadda and co-curator Alia Zaal Lootah developed the exhibition around the relationship between light, place and perception.
Abu Dhabi’s archipelagos and mangroves were not treated merely as dramatic backgrounds.
The works responded to water, changing visibility, ecological systems and the movement between natural and built environments.
Talks, workshops and performances extended the public programme beyond the installations.
Manar Abu Dhabi used light as a material capable of joining distant sites into one exhibition.
Because the works appeared across islands and shoreline locations, the city itself became the curatorial structure.
The project asked audiences to experience Abu Dhabi through routes, reflections and changing conditions after dark, making the coastal landscape visible as both cultural space and living environment.