{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-js","path":"/haitham-al-busafi-on-representing-oman-at-the-61st-venice-biennale/","result":{"data":{"wordpressPost":{"id":121814,"slug":"haitham-al-busafi-on-representing-oman-at-the-61st-venice-biennale","title":"Haitham Al Busafi on Representing Oman at the 61st Venice Biennale","excerpt":"“Difference matters, because without it the world becomes flattened into a universal language that usually belongs to power”","content":"\n<p><strong>“Difference matters, because without it the world becomes flattened into a universal language that usually belongs to power”</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>ArtReview</em>&nbsp;sent a questionnaire to artists and curators exhibiting in and curating the various national pavilions of the 2026 Venice Biennale, the responses to which will be published daily in the leadup to and during the Venice Biennale, which runs from 9 May through 22 November.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Haitham Al Busafi is representing Oman; the pavilion is in the Arsenale.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Celebrating Visions. Versace partners with&nbsp;</em>ArtReview<em>&nbsp;to share stories from the 2026 Venice Biennale.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Outlook-5i4daaig.png\" alt=\"Haitham Al Busafi\" class=\"wp-image-118587\" srcset=\"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Outlook-5i4daaig.png 714w, https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Outlook-5i4daaig-600x324.png 600w, https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Outlook-5i4daaig-300x162.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\" /><figcaption>Photo: Yaseen M</figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ArtReview </strong><em>Tell </em>ArtReview<em> what you plan to exhibit in Venice. What has influenced or inspired you?</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Haitham Al Busafi</strong> I will exhibit <em>Zīnah</em>, an immersive installation rooted in the Omani tradition of Al Zaanah, the silver adornment made for horses. The work begins with the idea that adornment is not decoration, but recognition: a declaration that another being is worthy of beauty. In Oman, the horse is not simply an animal that carries the rider; it is, in many ways, an extension of the self. To adorn it is to adorn a continuation of one’s own dignity, pride and presence. In Venice, I translate this tradition into a spatial and sensory environment: visitors walk across sand from Oman’s desert interior while suspended metal forms, derived from horse adornments, move above them. The work is influenced by the desert as a generative ground, by the sonic memory of silver in motion, and by the possibility of transforming inherited craft into a contemporary immersive space. The visitor does not observe adornment from a distance; they enter its field and briefly become the adorned body.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AR</strong> <em>In what ways (if at all) does your work relate to the theme of the Biennale exhibition, </em>In Minor Keys<em>?</em><em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAB </strong>For me, <em>In Minor Keys</em> is an invitation to move away from spectacle and toward resonance. <em>Zīnah</em> responds through quiet forces: weight, friction, shimmer, breath and sound. It begins in a rough desert landscape, but within that landscape there existed a deeply refined idea. The culture of Al Zaanah reminds us that relation is not abstract; it is worn, carried, sounded and cared for. In these troubled times, I wanted the work to suggest that we might look again at others (human and non-human) not as separate from us, but as beings through whom the self becomes more complete. The tradition of Al Zaanah is not widely known, even within Oman, and part of my intention was to bring it to the Biennale not only for an international audience, but also for Omanis themselves: to return this quiet knowledge to visibility, and to allow it to speak in a contemporary language</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AR</strong> <em>Why is the Venice Biennale still important, if at all? </em><em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAB </strong>The Venice Biennale remains important because it is one of the few places where art is still asked to think at the scale of the world. This does not mean that every pavilion must make a geopolitical statement, but it does mean that each one arrives with a context, a pressure, a history. Venice allows different temporalities to stand beside one another: ancient materials, contemporary anxieties, national narratives, private mythologies, technological futures. Its importance lies in this density. It is imperfect, certainly, but it remains a rare stage where an artwork from Oman can speak not as an illustration of a country, but as a proposition about how we might live, listen and recognize one another.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AR</strong> <em>What role does a national pavilion play at a time of increasing confrontational nationalisms? Is it about expressing difference or commonality?</em><em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAB </strong>A national pavilion becomes dangerous when it confuses culture with assertion. For me, its role is not to produce a hardened image of identity, but to open a more complex space of relation. Difference matters, because without it the world becomes flattened into a universal language that usually belongs to power. But commonality also matters, because without it difference becomes enclosure. <em>Zīnah</em> speaks from a very specific Omani tradition, yet its central question is shared: what does it mean to declare another being worthy of beauty? A pavilion can resist nationalism by refusing propaganda and offering instead a precise, generous and vulnerable form of cultural intelligence.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AR</strong> <em>Who, for you, is the most important artist (in any discipline) that your country has produced? </em><em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAB </strong>It is difficult, and perhaps unfair, to ask one artist to carry the imagination of a whole country. But if I had to name a foundational figure, I would mention Anwar Sonya, one of the pioneers of modern Omani art. What is important about his legacy is not only style, but permission: he helped open a space in which Omani artists could look at their own landscape, rituals, bodies and memories as material for contemporary thought. What makes his presence especially meaningful for me is that he is not only a historical reference in this project. He participated in the community workshop in Muscat, and some of his etched contributions are now hanging within the silver canopy of Zīnah. So his presence is both symbolic and material. He becomes part of the constellation, not as a monument, but as one voice among many in a collective field of memory, recognition and adornment.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/LZB_OMAN_03094-1230x820.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-121833\" srcset=\"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/LZB_OMAN_03094-1230x820.png 1230w, https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/LZB_OMAN_03094-600x400.png 600w, https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/LZB_OMAN_03094-300x200.png 300w, https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/LZB_OMAN_03094-768x512.png 768w, https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/LZB_OMAN_03094-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/LZB_OMAN_03094.png 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1230px) 100vw, 1230px\" /><figcaption><em>Zīnah</em>, installation view, Venice, 2026. Photo: Luca Zambelli Bais. Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia</figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AR</strong> <em>What is something you want people to know about your nation that they might not know already?</em><em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAB </strong>I would like people to understand that Oman is not a closed desert image, but a country shaped by movement. Its identity comes as much from the sea as from the land. For centuries, Oman has looked outward through the Indian Ocean, toward East Africa, South Asia and beyond. This history of exchange has produced a culture that is quiet but deeply layered, hospitable but not simplistic, rooted but never static. In <em>Zīnah</em>, the desert is not emptiness and ornament is not excess. Both are forms of knowledge. Oman’s strength lies in this ability to hold apparent opposites together: restraint and richness, tradition and invention, intimacy and worldliness.<em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AR</strong> <em>Given that you are exhibiting in a national pavilion, is there something (a quality or an issue or attitude) that distinguishes the art of that nation from that of others? That makes it particular? Are there specific contexts that it responds to? Or do you think that art is a universal language that goes beyond social, political or geographic boundaries?</em><em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAB </strong>I do not believe art is a universal language in the easy sense. Art travels, yes, but it always carries the pressure of where it was made: its materials, silences, rituals, politics, climates and inherited gestures. What distinguishes Omani art, at its strongest, is a certain attentiveness to relation: between land and body, sea and memory, craft and use, silence and meaning. It often resists overstatement. It does not always announce itself through spectacle, but through density. This is not a limitation; it is a strength. Oman’s context produces art that understands slowness, endurance, material memory, and the intelligence of things that appear quiet until one learns how to listen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AR</strong> <em>What, other than art, are you looking forward to seeing –&nbsp;or doing –&nbsp;while you are in Venice?</em><em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAB </strong>I am looking forward to seeing Venice from the water. Walking through the city gives one kind of knowledge, its bridges, passages, thresholds and sudden openings, but the waterways reveal another Venice altogether: more fluid, more unstable, closer to the logic by which the city was made. From the water, architecture is no longer only façade or monument; it becomes reflection, rhythm, erosion, movement. I will be very occupied with bringing the installation together, but I hope to steal a little time to experience the city this way. There is something important, especially while working on <em>Zīnah</em>, about seeing a place through its own element. In Venice, that element is water; in Oman, it is sand and sea. Both teach movement, both hold memory and both remind us that a city or a culture is never fixed, it is always shifting, carrying, returning.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AR</strong> <em>Could you give us a brief overview of your average working day while creating your presentation in Venice?</em><em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAB </strong>My working day has been divided between precision and uncertainty. There are technical questions, metal thickness, suspension systems, sound, sand depth, sensors, visitor movement, accessibility, light, and then there are more intuitive questions: when does a space begin to listen? When does an object stop being an object and become an atmosphere? Much of the process has involved testing, adjusting, removing and retuning. I move between drawings, fabrication details, conversations with the team, material samples, and moments of stepping back to ask whether the work still carries the tenderness of its original idea. The day is practical, but the aim is always poetic: to build a space that can respond to presence.<em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AR</strong> <em>Can art really change the world?</em><em></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAB </strong>Art does not change the world in the way policy changes the world, or in the way technology changes behaviour. Its force is less immediate, but not less real. Art changes the conditions under which something can be felt, imagined or recognized. It can make a forgotten gesture visible again. It can slow a body down. It can return dignity to something dismissed as minor, decorative or peripheral. For me, <em>Zīnah</em> does not claim to solve anything, but it insists on a proposition: that the self is not complete in isolation. If art can change the world, perhaps it begins there: in the expansion of the self beyond its own boundaries, in attention, in relation and in the refusal to treat beauty as unnecessary.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The&nbsp;</em><a href=\"https://artreview.com/category/venice-biennale-2026/\"><em>61st Venice Biennale</em></a><em>&nbsp;runs 9 May through 22 November 2026</em></p>\n","path":"/haitham-al-busafi-on-representing-oman-at-the-61st-venice-biennale/","format":"standard","date":"05 June 2026","rawDate":"2026-06-05T13:46:16.000Z","branch":{"name":"artreview.com"},"author":{"name":"ArtReview","path":"/author/artreview/"},"category":{"name":"Venice Biennale: Artist Q&As","path":"/category/venice-questionnaire/"},"featured_media":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Outlook-5i4daaig.png","caption":"Photo: Yaseen M","alt_text":"Haitham Al Busafi","media_details":{"width":714,"height":385,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Outlook-5i4daaig-300x162.png","width":300,"height":162},"medium":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Outlook-5i4daaig-600x324.png","width":600,"height":324},"large":null,"wordpress_1536x1536":null,"wordpress_2048x2048":null}}},"acf":{"article_artist":null,"article_video":null,"article_audio":null,"article_collaboration":"","article_custom_html_snippet":"","article_featured_title":"","article_featured_description":"","article_highlight":false,"article_custom_link_url":"","hero_image":null,"seo_title":"Haitham Al Busafi on Representing Oman at the 61st Venice Biennale","seo_description":"ArtReview sent a questionnaire to artists and curators exhibiting in and curating the various national pavilions of the 2026 Venice Biennale. Haitham Al Busafi is representing Oman; the pavilion is in the Arsenale.","article_related_articles":[{"id":121679,"title":"Nabil Nahas on Representing Lebanon at the 61st Venice Biennale","path":"/nabil-nahas-on-representing-lebanon-at-the-61st-venice-biennale/","author":{"name":"ArtReview","path":"/author/artreview/"},"category":{"name":"Venice Biennale: Artist Q&As","path":"/category/venice-questionnaire/"},"featured_media":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Photo-9-Nabil-Nahas-Photo-by-Milad-Ayoub-©-LVAA.png","caption":"","alt_text":"Nabil Nahas standing with his arms spread out in front of his work","media_details":{"width":2000,"height":1334,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Photo-9-Nabil-Nahas-Photo-by-Milad-Ayoub-©-LVAA-300x200.png","width":300,"height":200},"medium":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Photo-9-Nabil-Nahas-Photo-by-Milad-Ayoub-©-LVAA-600x400.png","width":600,"height":400},"large":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Photo-9-Nabil-Nahas-Photo-by-Milad-Ayoub-©-LVAA-1230x820.png","width":1230,"height":820},"wordpress_1536x1536":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Photo-9-Nabil-Nahas-Photo-by-Milad-Ayoub-©-LVAA-1536x1025.png","width":1536,"height":1025},"wordpress_2048x2048":null}}},"acf":{"article_collaboration":""}},{"id":121653,"title":"Alexey Morosov on Representing Kyrgyzstan at the 61st Venice Biennale","path":"/alexey-morosov-on-representing-kyrgyzstan-at-the-61st-venice-biennale/","author":{"name":"ArtReview","path":"/author/artreview/"},"category":{"name":"Venice Biennale: Artist Q&As","path":"/category/venice-questionnaire/"},"featured_media":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Alexey-Morosov-nel-suo-Studio-2020.png","caption":"","alt_text":"Alexey Morosov standing with a small sculptural figure","media_details":{"width":2000,"height":2000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Alexey-Morosov-nel-suo-Studio-2020-300x300.png","width":300,"height":300},"medium":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Alexey-Morosov-nel-suo-Studio-2020-600x600.png","width":600,"height":600},"large":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Alexey-Morosov-nel-suo-Studio-2020-1230x1230.png","width":1230,"height":1230},"wordpress_1536x1536":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Alexey-Morosov-nel-suo-Studio-2020-1536x1536.png","width":1536,"height":1536},"wordpress_2048x2048":null}}},"acf":{"article_collaboration":""}},{"id":121936,"title":"Faiza Butt on Representing Pakistan at the 61st Venice Biennale","path":"/faiza-butt-on-representing-pakistan-at-the-61st-venice-biennale/","author":{"name":"ArtReview","path":"/author/artreview/"},"category":{"name":"Venice Biennale: Artist Q&As","path":"/category/venice-questionnaire/"},"featured_media":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2.-Faiza-Butt-portrait_thumbnail-crop.png","caption":"","alt_text":"","media_details":{"width":1333,"height":750,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2.-Faiza-Butt-portrait_thumbnail-crop-300x169.png","width":300,"height":169},"medium":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2.-Faiza-Butt-portrait_thumbnail-crop-600x338.png","width":600,"height":338},"large":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2.-Faiza-Butt-portrait_thumbnail-crop-1230x692.png","width":1230,"height":692},"wordpress_1536x1536":null,"wordpress_2048x2048":null}}},"acf":{"article_collaboration":""}},{"id":122253,"title":"Anca Benera and Arnold Estefán on Representing Romania at the 61st Venice Biennale","path":"/anca-benera-and-arnold-estefan-on-romania-at-the-61st-venice-biennale/","author":{"name":"ArtReview","path":"/author/artreview/"},"category":{"name":"Venice Biennale: Artist Q&As","path":"/category/venice-questionnaire/"},"featured_media":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2.Anca-Benera-Arnold-Estefan_How-to-Mend-a-Broken-Sea__film-still_2.png","caption":"<i>How to Mend a Broken Sea?</i> (still), 2024–. © The artists","alt_text":"A woman in the sea, seen from above, with her large skirt patterned like a topographic map floating around her","media_details":{"width":2000,"height":1125,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2.Anca-Benera-Arnold-Estefan_How-to-Mend-a-Broken-Sea__film-still_2-300x169.png","width":300,"height":169},"medium":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2.Anca-Benera-Arnold-Estefan_How-to-Mend-a-Broken-Sea__film-still_2-600x338.png","width":600,"height":338},"large":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2.Anca-Benera-Arnold-Estefan_How-to-Mend-a-Broken-Sea__film-still_2-1230x692.png","width":1230,"height":692},"wordpress_1536x1536":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2.Anca-Benera-Arnold-Estefan_How-to-Mend-a-Broken-Sea__film-still_2-1536x864.png","width":1536,"height":864},"wordpress_2048x2048":null}}},"acf":{"article_collaboration":""}},{"id":121518,"title":"Juan Roberto Diago Durruthy on Representing Cuba at the 61st Venice Biennale","path":"/juan-roberto-diago-durruthy-on-representing-cuba-at-the-61st-venice-biennale/","author":{"name":"ArtReview","path":"/author/artreview/"},"category":{"name":"Venice Biennale: Artist Q&As","path":"/category/venice-questionnaire/"},"featured_media":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Roberto-Diago_Courtesy-Estudio-Roberto-Diago-thumbnail-crop.png","caption":"","alt_text":"","media_details":{"width":1487,"height":836,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Roberto-Diago_Courtesy-Estudio-Roberto-Diago-thumbnail-crop-300x169.png","width":300,"height":169},"medium":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Roberto-Diago_Courtesy-Estudio-Roberto-Diago-thumbnail-crop-600x337.png","width":600,"height":337},"large":{"source_url":"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Roberto-Diago_Courtesy-Estudio-Roberto-Diago-thumbnail-crop-1230x692.png","width":1230,"height":692},"wordpress_1536x1536":null,"wordpress_2048x2048":null}}},"acf":{"article_collaboration":""}}]}}},"pageContext":{"wordpress_id":121814,"categorySlugs":["venice-questionnaire"]}},"staticQueryHashes":["1047144546","1199547381","1199547381","1200741782","1200741782","2238591713","3764592887","4156135988","753543242","753543242","919364628"]}