1 May 2026
At the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Sultanate of Oman offers a quietly arresting proposition. Zīnah (Adornment), conceived by Haitham Al Busafi in the dual role of artist and curator, unfolds in the Arsenale Artiglierie from 9 May to 22 November 2026 as an immersive meditation on relation, movement, and shared presence.
Haitham Al Busafi, Zīnah (Adornment), 2026. Pavilion of the Sultanate of Oman at Biennale Arte 2026. Courtesy: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Sultanate of Oman. Photo: Andrea Avezzu.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, the pavilion draws its conceptual and material language from al-zaanah—the Omani tradition of adorning horses with silver. In this practice, horse and rider are embellished equally, not as ornamentation alone, but as an articulation of mutual recognition. The horse is understood as an extension of the rider, deserving of the same dignity, care, and visibility. It is this ethos of parity and interdependence that Al Busafi translates into spatial and sensory form.
The encounter begins in darkness. Visitors pass through a narrow, dimly lit threshold before emerging into an expansive field of sand sourced from the Omani desert. Suspended above, a canopy of silver elements—abstracted from the forms of al-zaanah—hovers in delicate tension. Movement through the space activates the installation: each step across the الرمل triggers a subtle choreography of sound as metal forms sway and chime. The sonic field is neither fixed nor composed in advance; it arises through proximity, rhythm, and weight, echoing the resonant interplay between horse and rider in motion.
Al Busafi’s process is grounded in iteration and attentiveness to perception. Through drawing, testing, and material experimentation, the work evolved as a sequence of spatial and temporal adjustments—how one enters, turns, pauses, and recalibrates within the environment. The suspended forms were scaled and refined to explore how metal carries vibration under shifting tensions, producing a responsive acoustic landscape that is continually reconfigured by those who inhabit it.
Central to Zīnah is the notion of collective authorship. A workshop held in Muscat brought together students and emerging artists, whose drawings—reflecting on relation and recognition—were inscribed onto the metal elements. These marks remain embedded within the installation, ensuring that the work carries multiple voices and lived perspectives. It is a structure at once precise and open-ended, completed only through the presence and movement of its audience.
Responding to the Biennale’s 2026 theme, In Minor Keys, Zīnah resists spectacle in favour of resonance. It operates through quiet intensities—friction, shimmer, breath, and sound—inviting a sensory rather than didactic mode of engagement. Presented in honour of the late Koyo Kouoh, whose curatorial vision foregrounded nuanced, embodied encounters, the pavilion proposes the “minor key” as a generative frequency: not diminished, but attuned to subtlety, intimacy, and shared experience.
As H.E. Sayyid Saeed bin Sultan Al Busaidi, Commissioner and Undersecretary for Culture, articulates, Oman’s participation positions contemporary artistic practice as both a reflection of cultural specificity.
