The UAE National Pavilion at Biennale Arte 2026 presents Washwasha, an exhibition curated by Bana Kattan, Curator and Associate Head of Exhibitions at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project, with Assistant Curator Tala Nassar. The exhibition features newly commissioned and existing works by Mays Albaik, Jawad Al Malhi, Farah Al Qasimi, Alaa Edris, Lamya Gargash, and Taus Makhacheva.

Washwasha is a single onomatopoeic word meaning “whispering” in Arabic. Its meaning resides in the sound itself: quiet, suggestive, and open. The six artists in the exhibition use sound as a starting point to explore the intangible. Bringing together intergenerational and interdisciplinary practices, Washwasha expands on themes of migration, technology, oral histories, and the relationship between language, body, and identity.

These histories reveal the UAE not as a fixed cultural form, but as a space shaped by mobility, correspondence, and layered forms of listening across land and sea. By contrasting early collective sound practices with contemporary technologically mediated listening cultures, the exhibition reflects on how shifts in infrastructure in the UAE—architectural, technological, and social—have transformed the ways communities hear and are heard.

Developed by the curatorial team and designed by Büro Koray Duman (B–KD) Architects, the exhibition space guides visitors from zones of quiet, close listening to areas consumed by noise and sonic overlap. The arrangement of the works follows the exhibition narrative, moving from oral histories and storytelling to language and communication, and finally to technology and hyper-connectivity.

The 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, titled In Minor Keys and curated by Koyo Kouoh, runs from 9 May to 22 November 2026.