UAE focuses on food security at Venice Biennale
A new bar, Arab Cinema Week and must-see art.
Welcome back to Al-Monitor Dubai.
We’re gearing up for the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale next week, where the UAE will inaugurate an exhibition on food security at its permanent pavilion in the Arsenale. Back in Dubai, we spotlight a new bar in Dubai Marina that transforms from a cozy tearoom by day into a glamorous speakeasy by night. We also look ahead to Arab Cinema Week at Cinema Akil and showcase the photographic works of Redha Hammad.
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Happy reading,
Rebecca
1. Leading the week: “Pressure Cooker”
Corn fields and net houses in Liwa, Abu Dhabi, 2025. (Courtesy of National Pavilion UAE – La Biennale di Venezia. Photography by Ola Allouz)
At the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale, the United Arab Emirates Pavilion will present "Pressure Cooker," an exhibition curated by Azza Aboualam — marking the first time an Emirati has curated the pavilion. The show explores how architectural design, spatial concepts and food production can be reimagined to develop environmentally friendly strategies for arid climates. Through a series of assembled greenhouses, the exhibition highlights the connections between food security, climate change and architecture.
To stage the exhibition, Aboualam conducted both archival and contemporary research in the UAE to demonstrate how desert environments can adapt to climate change.
Aboualam is an Emirati architect, assistant professor at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, and co-founder and director of research at Holesum Studio. Her curation of the UAE pavilion comes 11 years after she interned at the Venice International Architecture Exhibition in 2014, later earning her master’s in architecture from the Yale School of Architecture.
"Pressure Cooker will exhibit research that speaks to one of the most pressing challenges of our time: food security," notes Aboualam in the exhibition’s opening press release. "The exhibition examines the intersection of architecture, innovation, and sustainability to address critical issues shaping our shared future."
The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication edited by Aboualam titled "Pressure Cooker Recipes: An Architectural Cookbook," which blends storytelling and research in a cookbook format to show how sustainable food systems are deeply intertwined with architecture in arid environments.
Dates: May 10 to November 23
Location: UAE Pavilion at Venice Arsenale, Venice, Italy
Find more information here.
2. Word on the street: GABA
A tea ceremony at GABA. (Courtesy of GABA)
GABA, a bold new concept that has just opened in Dubai Marina, features an Asian tearoom by day in an intimate, dim-lit ambiance — and a lavish speakeasy by night. Here, tea ceremonies meet vintage glamour in a private setting. Choose from your favorite teas or discover new ones by day, then indulge in delicious, dreamy, and creative cocktails by night amid catchy tunes and a speakeasy — what was once considered a hidden or clandestine bar or nightclub during the Prohibition era (1920–33) in the United States. The venue, flavors, and service are Asian, coupled with a contemporary yet vintage flair.
Location: M level, Marina Promenade, Dubai Marina Dubai
Find more information here.
3. Dubai diary
Maryam Hoseini's "Bruised Cosmos," 2025. (Photography by Sebastian Bach. Courtesy of the Artist and Green Art Gallery)
• Maryam Hoseini presents “Swells” at Green Art Gallery
The undulating shapes — part abstract, part figurative — merge in a graceful interplay of color and form in the latest works of Iran-born, New York-based artist Maryam Hoseini, on view in her second solo show with Green Art Gallery in Dubai. A strong architectural sensibility emerges through prominent lines and structures, even as Hoseini, quoted in the curatorial statement, notes that “the figures have moved from architecture to landscape.”
Dates: Until May 24
Location: Green Art Gallery, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai
Find more information here.
• Arab Cinema Week Volume 4
Cinema Akil, Dubai’s independent cinema platform, launches the fourth edition of Arab Cinema Week this week. Presented by Fujifilm in partnership with Alserkal Avenue and Soul Communications, the event showcases a selection of films from across the Arab world. This year’s edition opens with a powerful performance by Majlis KaramAllah, inspired by Sudanese traditions, followed by a screening of "Three," a psychological thriller by Nayla Al Khaja set between Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
Dates: May 2-11
Location: Cinema Akil, Alserkal Avenue
Find more information here
• “The Promise” by Bashir Makhoul
This exhibition features the work of Palestinian artist Bashir Makhoul, highlighting his sculpture, painting, printmaking, and handwoven wool and silk tapestries. Born in Galilee and now based in Canada, Makhoul reflects on the idea of home — as both a place of comfort and a site of loss. A Palestinian who has spent most of his life in exile, his works explore the contradictions embedded in the concept of home.
Dates: April 13 – June 30
Location: Zawyeh Gallery in Alserkal Avenue
Find more information here.
4. Book of the week: “Planning Abu Dhabi — An Urban History”
“Planning Abu Dhabi: An Urban History” by Alamira Reem Bani Hashim offers an in-depth look at the UAE capital’s urban development, set in sharp contrast to that of its neighboring emirate, Dubai. Published by Routledge in 2019, the book reveals how Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates since 1971, “has been quietly devising its own plans … to manifest its role and stature as a capital city,” as Bani Hashim puts it.
An urban planner and researcher who has studied the emirate’s development for over a decade, Bani Hashim traces the city’s modern history through three distinct periods, beginning with the discovery of oil in 1960 and spanning the reigns of its three rulers: Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1960–1966), Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1966–2004), and Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
5. View from Dubai
Abu Dhabi 2024. Photography by Redha Hammad
A rising photographer based between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Redha Hammad spent his childhood in Saudi Arabia, Australia, and the UAE — an experience that has shaped his understanding of what it means to call “home,” a prominent theme in his photographic practice. Hammad completed an internship at Gulf Photo Plus in 2023 and has also exhibited his work at the Jameel Arts Center in Dubai. His work captures the fleeting moments of people and places around him — moments he seeks to immortalize in his images.
6. By the numbers
• The UAE is home to 40 million date palms of 120 different varieties.
• The Gulf nation is the world’s 4th largest date producer, accounting for 12% of global production.