Manar Abu Dhabi 2025 has revealed the curatorial team, location and dates for its upcoming edition, which is set to run from 15 November 2025 to 4 January 2026. As an initiative of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), the public light art exhibition returns for its second edition with plans to extend into the city of Al Ain.
The 2025 edition will be curated by artistic director Khai Hori, with co-curation by Alia Zaal Lootah and Munira Al Sayegh, as well as assistant curator Mariam Alshehhi. Hori is the former deputy director of Artistic Programming at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and was previously senior curator at the Singapore Art Museum and senior curator of the National Heritage’s Curatorial Development department. Zaal Lootah is an Emirati artist and curator, whose curatorial career includes roles in the Collections Department of the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, and as assistant curator in the Modern and Contemporary Art department at the Louvre in Abu Dhabi. Al Sayegh is a UAE-based cultural instigator and independent curator, founder of Dirwaza Curatorial lab and is on the board of NYUAD’s art gallery.
This year’s theme, entitled The Light Compass, explores the Gulf’s relationship with light through more than 19 site-specific installations by local and international artists, which include a number of commissioned artworks. For the exhibition, light is seen as an artistic medium, as well as a compass, with the landscape of Abu Dhabi serving as the backdrop to the exhibition.
Artistic director Khai Hori said: “Manar Abu Dhabi brings audiences and artists into imaginative encounters shaped by Emirati traditional knowledge and contemporary experience. With The Light Compass, this edition becomes a journey of navigation and discovery, inviting us to see, sense, and connect with the landscapes and stories that light reveals.”
Manar Abu Dhabi will also feature an array of public programming, including workshops, talks, and performances, as part of Public Art Abu Dhabi. The exhibition will unfold primarily on Jubail Island, with an extension into Al Ain for the first time, with the oases and archaeological sites of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, and particularly the sites of Al Qattara and Al Jimi Oases hosting installations which engage with the local landscape.
