Washwasha

Opens Saturday, May 9 Mays Albaik, Jawad Al Malhi, Farah Al Qasimi, Alaa Edris, Lamya Gargash, Taus Makhacheva Washwasha, curated by Bana Kattan, Curator and Associate Head of Exhibitions at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project, and Assistant Curator Tala Nassar, brings together artists whose practices contemplate contemporary soundscapes in the UAE, shaped by migration, transience, and long-term ties to the land. A phonetic transliteration of the Arabic word for “whispering,” Washwasha is a starting point for exploring themes of movement, technology, oral histories, and the relationship between language, body, and identity. These themes reflect the lived conditions of many who shape and are shaped by the UAE’s cultural landscape. From oral storytelling to poetry circles and locally initiated broadcasting efforts, sound has long functioned as a platform for collective self-representation. Washwasha situates contemporary artistic practices within this continuum of transmission and exchange. These histories reveal the UAE not as a fixed cultural form, but as a space shaped by mobility, correspondence, and layered forms of listening across land and sea. By contrasting early collective sound practices with contemporary technologically mediated listening cultures, the exhibition reflects on how shifts in infrastructure in the UAE, whether architectural, technological, or social, have transformed the ways communities hear and are heard. Commissioner: Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation Curator: Bana Kattan