“Through these beautiful and innovatively designed drinking fountains, we invite visitors to take a moment to pause as they quench their thirst and consider their own connection to this most precious resource,” says Marjan Faraidooni, chief experience officer at Expo 2020 Dubai.

A collaboration between Expo 2020 and Art Jameel, the initiative began in September 2019, with the Sabeel 2020 open call. The design contest received more than 100 proposals and was overseen by an internationally renowned jury, who selected and awarded two design collaboratives – UAE creative studio Architecture + Other Things and design team Faissal El-Malak and Alia Bin Omair. The designers created Water in the Green and Nahel, respectively, collectively known as Signature Fountains.

Giza’s pyramids were given new life earlier this week when the multidisciplinary arts entity Art D’Egypte opened “Forever is Now” on Oct. 21. The title of the exhibition, which will run until Nov. 7, is apt considering the pyramids’ history and, now, their new role in the first-ever contemporary art exhibition staged amidst their stately presence in 4,500 years. The exhibition, curated by independent arts advisor Simon Watson, features works by 10 contemporary artists, including Sultan bin Fahad, Alexander Ponomarev, Gisela Colon, Joao Trevisan, Lorenzo Quinn, JR, Moataz Nasr, Sherin Guirguis, Shuster + Moseley and Stephen Cox.

In Saudi artist Fahad’s “R III” (2021), a maze of stacked white cubes presents hieroglyphic inscriptions belonging to King Ramses III. The inscriptions were discovered by Saudi archaeologists in the northern part of the Kingdom. Fahad’s cubes, framed by the powerful forms of the nearby pyramids, shimmer when seen under the moonlight. The work investigates the historic roots between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Curated by UCCA's Philip Tinari, the biennial features a strong contingent of Chinese artists including Xu Bing, Zhang Peili, and Nabuqi.

 Simon Denny, Sarah Morris, and Lawrence Lek are among the international artists who will show at the biennale from 11 December 2021 till 11 March 2022. It will take place in Diriyah's JAX district, which comprises over 100 refurbished warehouses not far from Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.

Of the event's 63 artists, 26 come from Saudi Arabia, including Maha Malluh, Manal AlDowayan, Ahmed Mater, and Sarah Abu Abdallah.

This is “The Fifth Sun,” a textile mural projection with sound created in 2017 by Saudi artist Mohannad Shono. According to the artist, it explores self-fulfilling prophecies — and “self-inflicted wounds” — regarding destruction and rebirth. It is one of the works that Shono — one of Saudi Arabia’s most promising contemporary artists — is showing at BIENALSUR (the International Biennial of Contemporary Art of the South) in Buenos Aires, through the Saudi Ministry of Culture. 

Mending is a metaphor for Aya Haidar. Her Recollections series comprises photographs of war-damaged buildings in Beirut into which she stitches multicoloured embroidery thread to “repair” the bullet holes. “It was about filling in these voids – these holes that are scars, remnants and traces of something that is dark, ugly and traumatising, and filling it with something colourful and joyful,” she says.

Her Lebanese family fled the war in 1982, moving first to Saudi Arabia and then London. “For my family, those damaged buildings remind them of something terrifying, but something that does need to be remembered.”

Yemeni artist Sara Abdu’s solo exhibition, “I Only Meant To Visit,” has been impressing audiences at Saudi Arabia’s Athr Gallery in Jeddah since its opening in July. 

Shubbak brings together a specially curated selection of works by female Saudi artists, whose practices  are at the intersection of movement, live performance and choreography. Against a backdrop of a lack of spaces dedicated to contemporary performance, the featured  artists integrate movement in varied ways. Either trained in choreography, collaborating with choreographers or other artists, or self-staging, each artist has a distinct and personal approach to the way they use the human body as an expressive tool in their work. Their diverse practices range from quirky renditions of traditional culture, epic cinematic storytelling, choreography inspired by landscapes to Instagram-disseminated performances. 

Image & Movement includes works by Ahaad Alamoudi, Balqis Al Rashed, Sarah Brahim and Marwah AlMugait.

THOSE WHO DON’T KNOW FALCONS GRILL THEM, 2018

Ahaad Alamoudi

In Those who don’t know falcons grill them, a cohort of young male dancers perform the Khabayti, a traditional dance from Saudi Arabia’s West Coast. The choreographed pageantry of swirling, sword-wielding men and boys was once used in preparation for war, and is now typically performed at social gatherings by male dancers. However, at segregated events, female dancers are able to perform the Khabayti for women-only audiences.

Highly Strung is a durational body of work, which explores notions of motherhood, domesticity and the invisibility of a woman’s labour.

Assouline in collaboration with the destination of AlUla announces the release of an immersive book of photography and illustrations titled, AlUla. With stunning images taken by internationally renowned photographer Robert Polidori, and interpretive illustrations by multidisciplinary artist Ignasi Monreal, AlUla virtually transports readers to the destination, giving them a glimpse into the city’s rich history and a unique look into AlUla’s local culture.

Available at ATHR gallery, Jeddah. (Order your book today or drop us an email for further inquiry!) 

Nestled deep within the vast desert of northwest Arabia, AlUla is known as a cultural oasis and living museum with more than 200,000 years of human history: from Paleolithic hunter-gatherers; civilizations such as the Nabataeans, Dadanites, and Romans; Muslim pilgrims on their way to Mecca and Medina, and trade caravans traveling the Incense Route; to present-day communities who mingle and exchange cultural ideas with global travelers.

AlUla is home to relics both old and new including Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hegra, with remains dating back to the Nabataean kingdom, as well as modern landmarks including Maraya, an award-winning, multi-purpose concert and entertainment venue that is also the Guinness Book of Records largest mirrored venue in the world.