Civilizations: Under the Same Sky”: I’m Exhibiting at the New Ras Al Khaimah Biennale

This January, my work is heading to the United Arab Emirates for a milestone event: the first edition of the Ras Al Khaimah Contemporary Art Biennale, hosted inside the atmospheric Al Jazeera Al Hamra Heritage Village. It’s a setting where history feels close—and that’s exactly why this biennale’s focus on memory, identity, and future imaginaries resonates so strongly with my practice.

What’s new

The inaugural Ras Al Khaimah Contemporary Art Biennale opens to the public on January 16, 2026 and runs through February 8, 2026, under the conceptual frame “Civilizations: Under the Same Sky.” 

Curated by Sharon Toval, the biennale brings together a group of participating artists from different cultural and geographic contexts, building a conversation around civilizations not as a straight historical timeline, but as a living field of forces—where memory, spirituality, imagination, and identity continuously collide and transform.

The location matters: Al Jazeera Al Hamra Heritage Village—a historic site in Ras Al Khaimah—becomes more than a backdrop. It’s an active part of how the works are experienced, turning the visit into a walk through layered architectures, shifting temporalities, and contemporary questions asked inside a place that carries centuries of stories.

My work in the Biennale: Posh on Mars

For this first edition, I’m presenting Posh on Mars, a project that uses artificial intelligence to imagine new survival mythologies and identity-building in a post-terrestrial future. In the context of “Civilizations,” the work becomes a kind of speculative mirror: if we export ourselves elsewhere—what do we carry with us, what do we reinvent, and what do we refuse to let go?

I’m especially interested in how AI can function less as a “special effect” and more as a cultural engine—something that produces symbols, rituals, and visual codes at the speed of contemporary anxiety. In a time when identity is constantly rewritten (politically, technologically, algorithmically), Posh on Mars asks: who gets to author the future—and with what language?

Why it matters

This biennale is arriving at a moment when the cultural map is being redrawn. Ras Al Khaimah’s new biennale doesn’t simply add another date to the calendar—it signals how the Gulf region is continuing to expand its role in the international contemporary art ecosystem, with institutions and large-scale programs shaping what gets seen, discussed, and circulated.

What feels particularly compelling here is the curatorial tension between place-based heritage and global contemporary language:

• The theme “Civilizations: Under the Same Sky” frames civilization as plural, dynamic, and unfinished—useful for reading the present, not only the past.

• The four-pavilion structure explicitly moves from spiritual and ancestral registers toward future horizons, where technology and AI become part of how societies imagine what comes next.

• Presenting work inside a heritage village creates a productive friction: contemporary art doesn’t erase the site’s memory—ideally, it activates it, prompting viewers to reflect on what a “shared sky” could mean amid geopolitical pressures and competing narratives.

For my own practice—rooted in performance, moving image, and computational imagination—this context is powerful. It positions AI not as an abstract trend, but as a tool with myth-making consequences: it can reinforce dominant stories, or it can help us prototype new ones.

What to do next

If you’re in the UAE (or planning a trip), here are a few practical ways to engage:

• Visit the Biennale (Jan 16–Feb 8, 2026). Start with the pavilion path and let the site guide your pacing—this is an exhibition where architecture and atmosphere are part of the meaning.

• Read the curatorial framework before you go. Even a quick skim of the biennale overview will enrich how you connect the works across pavilions—especially where AI, craft, and “future imaginaries” intersect.

• Follow along online if you can’t attend. I’ll be sharing documentation and reflections through my channels and (where possible) here on the site—focusing on process, audience response, and what it means to show AI-driven work in a heritage context.

  REVIEWS

  IL GIORNALE DELL'ARTE (Italian) INSIDE ART (Italian) ARTRIBUNE (Italian)