At the 60th Venice Biennale, the Sultanate of Oman presents "Zīnah (Adornment)," a pavilion conceived by artist and curator Haitham Al Busafi. The immersive installation, on view at the Arsenale Artiglierie from 9 May to 22 November 2026, draws on the Omani tradition of adorning horses with silver (al-zaanah) to explore themes of relation, movement, and shared presence. Visitors enter through darkness into a field of Omani sand, beneath a canopy of silver elements that respond to movement with sound. The work incorporates drawings by students and emerging artists from a workshop in Muscat, emphasizing collective authorship.
The pavilion matters because it offers a quiet, sensory counterpoint to the spectacle often associated with major biennials, aligning with the Biennale's 2026 theme "In Minor Keys." By translating a cultural tradition of mutual recognition between horse and rider into a responsive spatial environment, Al Busafi positions Omani contemporary art as both culturally specific and universally resonant. The pavilion is also presented in honor of the late curator Koyo Kouoh, whose vision emphasized nuanced, embodied encounters, reinforcing the importance of intimacy and shared experience in contemporary art.