Manar Abu Dhabi Light Art Exhibition Transforms Islands with Large-Scale Installations

The Manar Abu Dhabi light art exhibition, inaugurated in late November, features approximately 20 artists and transforms the emirate's geography into an expansive exhibition space. Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer occupies the previously uninhabited Lulu Island with a two-kilometer circuit of ten large-scale works, including 'Collider' with hundreds of robotic light beam spotlights visible from five kilometers. Curated by Palestinian Reem Fada and Emirati Alia Zaal Lootah for Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism, which has a $35 million budget, the exhibition includes a 20-minute drone performance by French company Groupe F above the Louvre Abu Dhabi dome. Works are also installed in mangroves with sculptures by Emirati artists Shaikha al Ketbi, Radwha al Ketbi, and Ayesha Hadhir, and along the Corniche waterfront with pieces by Argentine Luciana Abait, Palestinian-American Samia Halaby, German-Belgian Carsten Höller, and Emirati Ahmad Saeed Al Areef Al Dhaheri. The exhibition utilizes Abu Dhabi's archipelago, with Lulu Island accessible only by boat, and emphasizes technological interaction and sustainability, such as Lozano-Hemmer's 'Pulse Island' with 4,000 lamps powered by visitor heartbeats using minimal energy.