As the much-awaited Venice Film Festival commences, the UAE has already made the country proud by bagging the Golden Lion Award for Best National Participation at La Biennale Architettura (Venice Biennale) 2021.

The Golden Lion award is the Biennale’s top honour which was awarded at an awards ceremony in Venice on August 30.

The National Pavilion UAE won the award for its work ‘Wetland’ which was the pavilion’s 10th participation at the event curated by Wael Al-Awar and Kenichi Teramoto.

‘Wetland’ is a prototype of an environmentally friendly salt-based cement alternative from recycled industrial waste saltwater. It could reduce the impact on the environment from the construction industry.

The jury selected Wetland as the winner as “It is a bold experiment that encourages us to think about the relationship between waste and production at both the local and global scales and opens to new construction possibilities between craft and high technology.”

“Following ten exceptionally thought-driven and creative exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, National Pavilion UAE is honoured to be chosen for the Golden Lion Award for Best National Participation out of 60 national pavilions. This is a testament to the work we have been doing to contribute to the UAE’s evolving art ecosystem, and a recognition of our continued efforts to tell the UAE’s untold stories in a globally relevant way said coordinating director of the National Pavilion UAE Laila Binbrek in a released statement.

The exhibition, which will be on display till November 21, 2021, also celebrates the UAE’s sabkhas (salt flats), which inspired the research for the development of the renewable building material, through large-scale images of the UAE’s UNESCO World Heritage Site-nominated sabkhas, created by New York-based Emirati artist Farah Al Qasimi.