Nabil Nahas to represent Lebanon at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2026
Lebanon's Ministry of Culture is proud to announce the country's participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, taking place from Saturday, May 9 to Sunday, November 22, 2026. Nabil Nahas, an internationally recognized contemporary artist, will represent Lebanon with Nada Ghandour leading as Commissioner and Curator of the Pavilion. The country's participation is organized together with the Lebanese Visual Art Association (LVAA).
Born in Beirut in 1949, Nabil Nahas moved to the United States in 1969, was awarded a BFA from Louisiana State University and an MFA from Yale University (1972). He currently lives and works between Beirut and New York.
His works are included in major museum collections, such as The British Museum (London), Tate Modern (London), The High Museum of Art (Atlanta), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Rutgers University Zimmerli Museum (New Jersey), Colby Museum of Art (Maine), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), The Flint Institute of Arts (Michigan), Michigan Museum of Art UMMA, Barjeel Art Foundation (Sharjah), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha), Ramzi & Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (Beirut), Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The Selection Committee, made up of Nada Ghandour, Maria Sukkar, Basel Dalloul and Elie Khouri, commented: 'Nabil Nahas has an extraordinary ability to explore the intricate relationships between nature, geometry, and the cosmos, creating a unique visual language that seamlessly blends abstraction and figuration. His monumental works, existing between painting and sculpture, employ fractal forms with both scientific precision and artistic sensitivity. The result is an immersive, sensory, and meditative experience that navigates the tensions between chaos and harmony. Through his art, Nabil Nahas offers a poetic vision of the world – one that resonates with contemporary concerns while evoking both the spiritual and the material, the intimate and the cosmic.'
The Lebanese Pavilion will be located in the Arsenale, one of the two main historical sites of the Biennale. It is produced by the Lebanese Visual Art Association (LVAA), a non-profit organization based in Paris, France.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Khaleej Times
6 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Emirati architect Azza Aboualam takes UAE climate solutions to Venice Biennale 2025
In May, the days in Venice are longer than usual — so are the queues outside exhibitions in Giardini and the Arsenale complex, the two major hubs of the prestigious Venice Biennale. This year, the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the biennale (which is also known as 'the Olympics' of the art and architectural world) opened to the public on May 10, with around 66 countries displaying their finest cultural productions. The UAE, which has been hosting award-winning pavilions at the biennale since 2014, returns this time with a theme that couldn't be more relevant — the importance of food production, sustainable agrarian practices, greenhouse architecture, and climate strategies in arid regions like the UAE. Commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and supported by the UAE Ministry of Culture, the national pavilion, aptly titled Pressure Cooker, has been curated by architect and academic, Azza Aboualam. Interestingly, Aboualam, who is based between Dubai and Sharjah, is the first Emirati woman curator representing the national pavilion of the UAE at Venice Architecture Biennale. The installations in Pressure Cooker (including multimedia and audio content) invite visitors to examine Aboualam and her team's extensive research, which focuses on the transformative power of greenhouses and how UAE is responding to the challenges of climate change. Aboualam, who is an assistant professor at the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University and co-founder of Holesum Studio, was selected after an open call for proposals to curate the national pavilion of the UAE in 2023. As the pavilion creates unprecedented buzz in Venice, we speak to her about her curatorial concept, the UAE's role in driving solutions to the looming environmental crisis, and what we can learn from local wisdom and indigenous climate systems. Is it true that the Eureka moment for this project came to you when your mother expressed surprise after sampling some desert blueberries you offered her — 'But you need greenhouses to produce these?' she reportedly remarked? Yes, the whole project really started from that moment with my mother. She was shocked when I told her the blueberries we were eating were locally grown. 'In the desert? They must be grown in greenhouses,' she said. That sparked something. I started researching how greenhouses are used in the UAE, and quickly noticed that they are mostly approached from a technical or agricultural angle, not architectural. With Pressure Cooker, we reframe the greenhouse as a spatial and formal composition, in addition to it being a tool to grow food. Through design and experimentation, we explored how architecture can enhance food production in extreme climates — responding to sunlight, heat, and water scarcity. It's not about offering a perfect solution, but rather opening up ways in which architecture can support food security and resilience, particularly in arid environments like the UAE. The installations in Pressure Cooker highlight traditional farming methods and there's all this research that visitors are free to explore. Can you share the idea behind recreating greenhouses as objects of art? In collaboration with Holesum Studio, the exhibition focuses on three greenhouse assemblies, each using a modular 'kit-of-parts' that we designed. Each configuration explores different design variables — roof shape, shading, wall height — and how they impact interior climate and crop growth. We also included regional crops to show what's possible. The aim was to make the research visible, showing the process from fieldwork to construction, and inviting visitors to think about design as experimentation and imagine how architecture and food production can overlap. Greenhouses are sanctuaries for growth and birth but in a way, they also stand as metaphors or seeds for new ideas. They are spaces of protection, growth, and transformation. In many ways, they reflect the design process itself. We saw them as spaces where ideas take root and where adaptation becomes possible. For us, the greenhouse became a way to talk about care, context, and how architecture can create the conditions for change as well as act as third spaces in arid climates. The UAE relies mostly on food imports. As an architect and researcher, what do you believe can be done to make the UAE more self-sufficient in terms of food production? Self-sufficiency in the UAE will require a mix of traditional knowledge and new tools. Pressure Cooker suggests that adaptive, small-scale systems, designed with climate in mind, can be part of the solution. If we rethink food production as a spatial issue, not just a technological one, we can build more resilient and locally attuned infrastructures that communities can access and maintain. What can countries with harsh climates, like the UAE and others in the Gulf region, learn from Pressure Cooker? They can take from Pressure Cooker the idea that architecture can help us think with the land, not just on top of it. Harsh environments aren't obstacles to work around, they are part of the equation. The project proposes small-scale, adaptable systems that respond to heat, light, and resource limits through design. It's not about importing solutions, but developing ones rooted in local conditions. If we pay attention to how land behaves, how it retains heat, where shade falls, and how air moves, we can shape more efficient, resilient spaces for food production, even in the most challenging settings. During your research, you visited farms in the UAE. In your view, how is the UAE coping with cultivating vegetation for the local population and what are the impacts of climate change on this region? In the UAE, agriculture faces significant challenges due to the country's hot climate and limited water resources. However, there have been notable strides toward sustainability. The government has introduced innovations like hydroponics, vertical farming, and controlled-environment agriculture to mitigate these challenges and ensure food security. There's also a growing interest in researching drought-resistant crops and more efficient water management systems. In terms of climate change, the UAE is highly vulnerable. Rising temperatures, water scarcity, and desertification are key concerns, which is why the country is investing in research to develop sustainable agricultural practices. The impacts of climate change are already being felt through increased temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns, which further strain existing agricultural resources and traditional farming methods. What is the best response you've received at Venice so far and what has been your personal takeaway from participating in this biennale? There were many interesting conversations and comments, but one in particular struck me. One of the visitors told me the exhibition reminded her of their farming techniques in Oman — along with the different ways they've adapted to their context and how architecture can play a role in that. That felt like success to me. It meant we created spaces that visitors could visually recognise but also where people could slow down and reflect and realise the potential in their slight alterations and modifications. Personally, my biggest takeaway has been how architecture can function as a bridge — especially on a global scale like the Venice Biennale. It reminded me that sometimes, the most impactful ideas are the ones that emerge slowly, through conversation and contemplation. Venice, as a lagoon, is probably as fragile to the rising tides of climate catastrophe as the UAE. This is a city where nothing is grown locally and most of the food arrives on boats. Does your exhibition feature nods to Venice? Yes, it does and the parallels between Venice and the UAE were intentional. Both are places where sustenance has historically depended on the outside world to meet a large number of its needs, in terms of food and other goods. Venice receives its food by boat, echoing the UAE's own logistical choreography of food imports, as proven by the archival research conducted for the project. In Pressure Cooker, and the space in the pavilion, we reference the Veneto region in the materiality of the space. The rammed earth element, for example, relies on the same recipe as the one we experimented with in Dubai during the design-build phase but here it has a pink undertone due to the materials and colour of sand from the region. The crops that you see are at a Venetian growth phase and echo Venice's climate. Other nods include spatial references and thematic echoes that invite the visitor to think about how geography, climate, and trade shape our food systems and our futures, and how architecture can play a role. What made you first become interested in architecture? My interest in architecture grew out of a fascination, as a young girl, about how spaces influence human behaviour. Growing up and witnessing the urban development of the UAE, I was fascinated by how architecture responded to both the environment and culture, as well as its users. I started seeing architecture not just as buildings but also as a way to solve problems and create environments where people can interact, work, and live more effectively. As an architect, I would describe myself as practical and context-driven. I focus on solutions that work for the specific place and people, whether that's through sustainability, material choices, or just making sure a space feels right for the people who use it, with a focus on designing spaces that have a lasting impact and respond to both their immediate and broader environments. I grew up witnessing rapid change around me, and still do. That pace of transformation made me curious about what we choose to keep, especially in our memories, and how cities are constantly changing. I was drawn to architecture not just for its creative potential but also for how it holds memory and meaning. Research came during my time at Yale and grew tremendously after that. I was curious about architecture and its strong ties to history, form, and systems of care. Becoming the first Emirati curator at the Venice Biennale for its architectural version wasn't something I imagined early on, but it became a way to reflect on where we are as a region and where we might go. It wasn't just about representation. It was about opening a dialogue that felt simultaneously personal and global. Finally, how can architects contribute to a global discourse on climate change? Architects are uniquely positioned to address climate change because the built environment is both a major contributor to global emissions while it could be used as a powerful platform for sustainable solutions. Through material choices, energy strategies, urban planning, and even reframing policy, architects can lead the way in reducing environmental impact. But more than that, architecture shapes how people live, move, and interact with their environments — so it's also about understanding culture and human behaviour and re-framing it through the built environment.
Arabian Business
2 days ago
- Arabian Business
Arab film industry
The fund, which will have GEA as its main contributor, will have the Ministry of Culture as a co-sponsor, along with a group of companies specialized in the field
Broadcast Pro
26-05-2025
- Broadcast Pro
La Biennale di Venezia opens call for 13th Final Cut in Venice programme
The programme breeding talents and awards that supports films in post-production from Africa and the Middle East. La Biennale di Venezia has announced the opening of submissions for the 13th edition of Final Cut in Venice. The deadline for submitting projects is set for June 9, 2025. The upcoming edition of Final Cut in Venice will be held from August 31 to September 2, 2025, as part of the Venice Production Bridge during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, which will run from August 27 to September 6, 2025, on the Lido di Venezia. Launched in 2013, the Final Cut in Venice programme has played a vital role in supporting the completion of high-quality films from Africa and the Middle East, including Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen. It has become a key platform for nurturing emerging talents and facilitating international recognition and awards for films from these regions. Filmmakers interested in participating must complete the pre-selection online entry form and send all required materials by the June 9 deadline. The three-day programme will showcase selected films-in-progress in working copy form to an audience of industry professionals, including producers, buyers, distributors and festival programmers. These screenings are open exclusively to accredited Industry pass holders. In addition to public screenings, a full day of individual meetings will take place on September 2, allowing filmmakers to connect directly with industry stakeholders. The programme will culminate in the awarding of both in-kind and cash prizes aimed at supporting the films' post-production phases. For the ninth consecutive year, La Biennale di Venezia will present a €5,000 award to the best film in post-production. This prize will be decided by a three-member jury appointed by the Festival Director. All other awards will be determined by the Festival Director in collaboration with Final Cut in Venice supporters. Confirmed supporters of the 2025 edition include: 196 Media, M74srl, Cinémathèque Afrique (Institut Français), El Gouna Film Festival, Festival International du Film d'Amiens, Festival International de Films de Fribourg, Laser Film, MAD Solutions, Mnemonica, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Oticons, Red Sea Fund, Rai Cinema, Studio A Fabrica, Sub-Ti Ltd, Sub-Ti Access Srl and Titra Film. For the fourth consecutive year, the Red Sea International Film Festival will provide additional support to the Final Cut in Venice initiative. The 82nd Venice International Film Festival, under the direction of Alberto Barbera and organised by La Biennale di Venezia, will be held from August 27 to September 6, 2025, continuing its long-standing tradition of championing global cinema.
