The Emirati architect Azza Aboualam has been named as curator of the UAE’s participation in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia by the National Pavilion UAE.
Pleasingly, Aboualam was a Venice Intern at the National Pavilion UAE’s debut participation in the Venice Architecture Biennale back in 2014 (that was with Michele Bambling’s exhibition Lest We Forget: Structures of Memory in the UAE).
“I am honoured to have been selected to curate the National Pavilion UAE” said Azza Aboualam. “My 2014 internship inspired me to specialise in the overlap of architectural design and research by pursuing my master’s degree at Yale, and it is deeply fulfilling to return to Venice ten years later as a curator.”
Aboualam was selected through the National Pavilion UAE’s open call, the third of its kind, which invited architects, designers, artists, historians, and researchers who have worked or studied in the UAE and elsewhere in MENASA to highlight “an untold story from the UAE that contributes to a global discourse on architectural practice”. She will be presenting an exhibition that will be accompanied by a book; the brief is to “showcase our nation’s rich cultural legacy and forward-thinking approach in tackling global issues that concern us all”, and Aboualam has selected “a topic that binds us all – food”. Should be interesting.
As she said, “presenting this work on the global stage is a remarkable opportunity, especially contributing to the architectural discourse on a stage like the Biennale Architettura 2025.”
Azza Aboualam is an Assistant Professor at the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University Dubai. Before joining ZU, Azza worked on a variety of projects with the Department of Public Works in Sharjah, notably the rather fine Wasit Wetland Center, the Aga Khan award winner of 2019. She is also a co-founder and director of research at Holesum Studio, an interdisciplinary architecture and design practice based between New York and Sharjah. She’s a prominent contributor to the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development’s UAE Architecture Initiative; her field research and sketches were published as In Search of Spaces of Coexistence: An Architect’s Journey (2022); she contributed as a researcher to Building Sharjah, co-edited by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi and Todd Reisz (2021), and Reisz’s Showpiece City: How Architecture Made Dubai (2020).
Aboualam has a current exhibition in the Jameel’s Library Circles series, a research display on one of her principal interests – an exploration delves into how architectural form shapes Islamic spiritual practice, contrasting mosques in Sharjah and New York through architectural drawings and photographs. This is a particularly interesting show, celebrating the way these spaces support an Islamic identity while also reflecting the development of the two cities and the effect this has on devotional practice. It runs to 24 November.
The International Architecture Biennale runs from 10 May to 23 November 2025 in Venice.
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