Manar Abu Dhabi 2025 Illuminates Historic Sites with Light Art Installations

The second edition of Manar Abu Dhabi, a public art biennial, focuses on light as its medium across two primary locations until January 4. Artistic director Khai Hori anchors the festival with lunar themes, describing the moon as a celestial guide. At Mina Zayed port, KAWS presents a 32-meter-long figure holding a luminous moon in his installation KAWS: HOLIDAY Abu Dhabi (2025). Al Ain city's Al Jimi and Al Qattara Oases feature interventions like Khaled Shafar's Sadu Red Carpet (2025), which reimagines Bedouin weaving with glowing red paths at a seventeenth-century fort. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Pulse Canopy (2025) synchronizes light to visitors' heartbeats, while Amar Al Attar's Cycle of Circles (2025) uses lightboxes for photographic self-portraits. Jubail Island hosts DRIFT's nightly drone shows and a whispering forest of light carved into sand. Lachlan Turczan's Veil I (2025) creates laser mirages in the desert, and Shaikha Al Mazrou's Contingent Object (2025) forms a glowing salt pool with algae. Co-curator Alia Zaal Lootah questions what occurs when light interacts with people, nature, and water. The festival narrows its geographic scope compared to its first edition, concentrating on Abu Dhabi's built heritage and natural ecologies.