Bana Kattan Announced as Curator of UAE Pavilion for Venice Biennale 2026
Bana Kattan. Courtesy National Pavilion UAE – La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Dahlia Dandashi.
The National Pavilion UAE announces Bana Kattan as curator for its presentation at the 61st International Venice Biennale in 2026, a move that brings the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi’s associate head of exhibitions to the forefront of the UAE’s most visible international platform. Her appointment signals continuity, but also a sharper focus on the entanglement of local histories and global concerns.
Kattan’s path has been closely interwoven with the UAE’s art ecology. Born in Abu Dhabi, she shaped her early curatorial voice at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, where she staged Permanent Temporariness (2018), an exhibition by artist duo Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti exploring the social, economic, and political consequences of displacement, and But We Cannot See Them (2017), a group show which traced a collective of male artists within the UAE art community from 1988 to 2008, from obscurity to wider recognition.
At the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, she introduced audiences to artists negotiating exile, language, and memory, with projects by Mona Hatoum (2023), Maryam Taghavi (2023–2024), and Wafaa Bilal (2025). Now at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, she navigates between institution-building and artist-centred research.
Kattan’s appointment aligns the UAE Pavilion with her sensibility: transgenerational, often rooted in the Arab world, politically aware, but never provincial. ‘It is an honour,’ she says, positioning the Pavilion not only as a showcase of Emirati creativity but as a site where regional and global conversations collide.
The central exhibition of the 61st Venice Biennale, In Minor Keys, is conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh, based upon plans she drew up before her death in May 2025, and will be accompanied by a dedicated publication.
The 61st Venice Biennale will run from 9 May to 22 November 2026. The UAE presentation is commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and supported by the UAE Ministry of Culture, marking the country’s ninth participation in the International Art Exhibition. —[O]
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