Diriyah Art Futures opens doors with tech-savvy exhibit

1 / 7
Diriyah Art Futures has opened its doors with its inaugural exhibition, Art Must Be Artificial: Perspectives of AI in the Visual Arts, running until Feb. 15. (Supplied)
Short Url
Updated 28 November 2024
Follow

Diriyah Art Futures opens doors with tech-savvy exhibit

  • Exhibition features works by more than 30 international and regional artists exploring the history of computer art from the 1960s to the present day
  • Director of Diriyah Art Futures Haytham Nawar: The art hub is transforming Saudi Arabia into a global center of exchange and discourse in these emergent fields

RIYADH: Diriyah Art Futures, a new media arts hub in the region, has opened its doors with its inaugural exhibition, “Art Must Be Artificial: Perspectives of AI in the Visual Arts,” running until Feb. 15.

Curated by Jerome Neutres, former director at the Reunion des Musees Nationaux-Grand Palais in Paris, the exhibition features works by more than 30 international and regional artists exploring the history of computer art from the 1960s to the present day.

Haytham Nawar, director of Diriyah Art Futures, told Arab News that the art hub is “transforming Saudi Arabia into a global center of exchange and discourse in these emergent fields.”

The exhibit includes pieces by Saudi artists Lulwah Al-Homoud, Muhannad Shono and Nasser Al-Shemimry, showcasing Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning contributions to new media and digital art.

International artists include Frieder Nake (Germany), Vera Molnar (Hungary/France) alongside contemporary innovators like Refik Anadol (Turkiye) and Ryoji Ikeda (Japan).

“By placing works from different geographic regions, eras and mediums alongside one another, we aim to introduce the region to the immense power of new media art, while shining a light on its remarkable depth and potential,” said Nawar.

He added that the exhibition brings “a much-needed regional perspective to the conversation, allowing the works to be experienced, understood and perceived in new ways.”

Speaking about new media art explorations in the Saudi context, the hub director added: “Interestingly, with the word ‘algorithm’ originating from the Islamic world, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the relevance of these themes to Saudi Arabia, a country with a very young and technologically literate population, currently experiencing a dramatic transformation.”

Alongside its opening, the hub is also launching the Emerging New Media Artists Programme, developed in collaboration with Le Fresnoy — Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France.

The initiative will last one year, equipping emerging artists with advanced equipment, mentorship and funding to create innovative multidisciplinary works.

Nawar says Diriyah Art Futures selected a group of emerging artists from diverse backgrounds, hailing from across the world and representing a broad range of mediums.

“We wanted to work with artists whose work already stands out, but would benefit from a one-year program, under the mentorship of world-class artists.”

In addition, the hub has announced the Mazra’ah Media Art Residency, which will run from February to April next year. This three-month program invites established artists and scholars to engage with its resources to create works reflecting on the relationship between nature, technology and society.

Mona Khazindar, adviser to the Ministry of Culture, said that the hub is creating “a space for diverse perspectives and creative expressions to meet, converse and flourish — breaking down barriers and demonstrating the power of art to connect humanity.”

“DAF embodies Saudi Arabia’s commitment to facilitating cultural exchange and international collaboration, while creating opportunities for shared learning, innovation and mutual understanding,” Khazinder added. “Through our embrace of these principles, we aim to not only celebrate regional heritage, but also contribute to the global conversation about the role of culture in shaping a more connected and creative future.”

Developed by the Saudi Museums Commission in partnership with Diriyah Co., Diriyah Art Futures contributes to the global new media and digital art landscape by integrating regional voices and pioneering practices in art, technology and innovation.

The launch of Diriyah Art Futures aligns with Saudi Vision 2030’s commitment to advancing innovation, driving global collaboration and positioning the country as a leader in the global creative economy.


Balad Al-Fann brings Saudi art to life

Updated 29 May 2025
Follow

Balad Al-Fann brings Saudi art to life

  • Exhibition blends art and memories through archival materials, selected artworks, personal possessions and rare voice recordings

JEDDAH: The second edition of the Balad Al-Fann art program has opened in Jeddah Historic District and runs until June 15.

The initiative this time presents a captivating series of art exhibitions, held under the theme “Our Storied Walls,” which celebrate memory, culture and place.

It boasts a renewed focus on local narratives with each exhibition looking at the tangible and human heritage of the city.

Held at Nassif Boutique, the exhibition is a tribute to the late artist Hisham Binjabi, a foundational figure in Saudi Arabia’s modern art movement.

Curated by Ayman Yossri Daydban, a former student of Binjabi, the exhibition blends art and memories through archival materials, selected artworks, personal possessions and rare voice recordings.

Arab News spoke to Daydban, who is one of the most prominent contemporary artists in Saudi Arabia, with his works featuring in major museums and biennials.

He said: “This is a personal exhibition. My journey with Hisham Binjabi began over 35 years ago when he discovered my work, admired it, and encouraged me.

“For a whole year his name echoed in my mind, until I held my first solo exhibition in 1991. It was his encouragement and appreciation of my boldness — he said I thought outside the box — that pushed me forward. I found myself naturally drawn to contemporary art.”

Daydban’s art is conceptual, and rooted in ideas and meaning. Binjabi, on the other hand, remained faithful to classical and realist styles.

Daydban said: “For years we observed each other’s work from afar, and every time we met I felt like a student reuniting with his mentor.

“But Hisham was more than an artist — he was a social figure, a cultural activist who managed and promoted art within the community, bringing art into social and human contexts.

“His greatest influence was not just in his paintings, but in his presence, personality, and wisdom.”

The exhibition does not merely display Binjabi’s artworks — it narrates his life story through them.

His wife played a part by telling their story through her lens and, for the first time, her works are featured in a dedicated section alongside audio recordings of her and their daughters, reflecting on their lives together as a creative family.

An audio room on the upper floor features testimonials from contemporary artists who were his students or peers, and more recordings are added daily.

The exhibition unfolds across three levels: a deeply emotional audiovisual experience, a debut showcase of his wife’s personal works, and a collective sonic space for shared memory and reflection.

Daydban added: “Hisham was, above all, a socially engaged artist, and this exhibit is aimed primarily at the community of Al-Balad, where he lived and left his mark.”

The program also honors the late Safeya Binzagr, one of the first female visual artists in the Kingdom.

Curated by Effat Fadag, the exhibition weaves together the visual and literary in a journey filled with nostalgia, history and cultural memory.

The exhibition presents rare paintings, handwritten letters, and personal belongings that reflect Binzagr’s unique lens on Hejazi life. Her deeply human portrayals of women, homes, attire and rituals offer not only artistic beauty but also historic insight.

Titled “Revealing What Was Hidden,” the exhibition shows how Binzagr used her art to bring the past to life. Her work helps keep Saudi culture and history alive.

The event honors her role as an artist and historian, and Fadag said: “I asked myself: What can I say that hasn’t already been said? I wanted to highlight aspects of her journey that aren’t widely known.”

Binzagr was the first woman to publicly showcase her family and community life, giving a voice to the private lives of Saudi women — a society that was largely hidden at the time.

Fadag said: “I tried to reflect this (voice) through the layout of the exhibition, using the historic Nassif House, starting from the main building to the external annex, with three symbolic doors that narrate her story.”

This journey begins with Binzagr’s birth and upbringing, moves through her education, the exhibitions she held, and finally her artistic projects on Saudi traditional attire, which are featured on the second floor.

Fadag said: “In the clothing room you see very personal images — she even modeled for her work so she could better understand and express the exact details she wanted to paint. She knew exactly how to translate her vision.”

The final section focuses on giving back to the community, and how Binzagr impacted learning, the broader culture and society at large.

The initiative also puts the spotlight on a curated selection of winning works from a national photography competition, while Balad Al-Fann also hosts a competition showcasing traditional calligraphy, ceramics, ornamentation, and engraving.


Qatar’s ‘Beyti Beytak’ exhibition in Venice explores architecture’s roots in hospitality 

Updated 29 May 2025
Follow

Qatar’s ‘Beyti Beytak’ exhibition in Venice explores architecture’s roots in hospitality 

  • Show examines how traditional MENASA design ‘fosters belonging, dignity, and collective life’ 

DUBAI: Qatar’s first participation in the Venice Biennale of Architecture is a major exhibition spanning two sites in the Italian city — the ACP-Palazzo Franchetti, and the site of what will be the permanent Qatar Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale. (That pavilion will be the first permanent addition to the historic gardens in more than 30 years.) 

The exhibition, “Beyti Beytak. My Home is Your Home. La Mia Casa è la Tua Casa,” is presented by Qatar Museums and curated by the Art Mill Museum — Qatar’s yet-to-be-built museum of modern and contemporary art — and, according to a press release “explores meanings of hospitality within the architecture, urbanism and landscape designs of the Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa region.” It features examples from 30 architects, dating from the mid-20th century to the present day.  

Aurélien Lemonier, architect and curator at the Art Mill Museum, and the exhibition’s co-curator, tells Arab News: “The exhibition reflects on the essence of hospitality, not just as tradition but as a spatial and social practice. It explores how architecture from the MENASA region fosters belonging, dignity, and collective life.” 

Saudi architect Sumaya Dabbagh’s Mleiha Archaeological Center, completed in 2016. (Courtesy Dabbagh Architects — Photo by Gerry O’Leary, Rami Mansour)

On the permanent pavilion’s future site stands a newly commissioned structure by Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan’s first female architect and a pioneer of humanitarian design. Her bamboo-and-palm-frond “Community Center,” created using zero-carbon, low-cost techniques, was developed through the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which Lari co-founded. The structure exemplifies what she calls Barefoot Social Architecture — a methodology that mobilizes local resources, community labor, and heritage crafts to produce flood- and earthquake-resistant structures, addressing, she has said, “climate and social justice.” 

“When I spoke with Yasmeen,” recalls Lemonier, “I realized her work is a direct legacy of (Egyptian architect) Hassan Fathy. Like him, she empowers the poor to build their own futures.”  

The exhibition draws a clear line of continuity from Fathy’s radical use of earthen materials and community-led design to Lari’s ‘barefoot architecture’ in Pakistan. “Fathy taught communities to build with mud brick and vernacular layouts; not only to survive but to thrive,” he says. “Lari continues that legacy by using architecture as a tool of empowerment.” 

A drawing of Hassan Fathy’s Hamdi Seif Al-Nasr Rest House. (Courtesy of The American University in Cairo)

Lemonier’s co-curator Sean Anderson, an associate professor at New York’s Cornell University, says: “For centuries, cities in the MENASA region have been shaped not by individual buildings, but by how people gather, interact, and live together. Today, that wisdom is more relevant than ever, as we witness the planet’s transformations, mirrored by technology’s drive toward a more collective, yet divided, future.” 

This spirit is echoed in the main exhibition at Palazzo Franchetti where “Beyti Beytak” becomes an immersive and archival deep dive into MENASA’s architectural richness. Some of the architects featured are being exhibiting in Venice for the first time. The curators’ ambition is to capture the continuity across generations — from pioneers such as India’s Raj Rewal, Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil of Egypt, Pakistan’s Nayyar Ali Dada, and Sri Lanka’s Minnette de Silva to contemporary leaders including Palestinian-Jordanian architect Abeer Seikaly, Bangladesh’s Marina Tabassum, Sumaya Dabbagh of Saudi Arabia, and Palestine’s Dima Srouji. 

“‘Beyti Beytak’ is a testament to the architectural heritage and creativity of the Arab world and the Global South,” says Lemonier. “The future Art Mill Museum was conceived as a multidisciplinary institution, one that will embrace this richness not as a regional footnote but as a core narrative.” 

Aurelien Lemonier, co-curator of the ‘Beyti Beytak’ exhibition. (Supplied)

The curators have woven together an architectural narrative grounded in civic humanism, tracing three generations of architectural expression through thematic sections that include oases, mosques, museums, housing, and gardens, with a special focus on community centers and urbanism in Doha. 

“The selected architects’ work forms a chorus of alternative futures; ones where architecture is not a luxury, but a deeply human practice of care, resilience, and place making,” says Anderson. In fact, one of the pavilion’s central propositions is that, architecturally, traditional knowledge may offer more-resilient solutions to climate change than high-tech design.  

“It’s a paradox,” Lemonier admits. “You’d think triple-glazed facades and cutting-edge systems are more advanced — but mud, lime, and bamboo buildings often perform better in extreme climates. What we see with Yasmeen Lari is a reappropriation of vernacular materiality as climate adaptation.” 

Throughout the exhibition, the curators draw a sharp line between architectural conceptualism and communal responsibility.  

“Architecture is not sculpture,” Lemonier says emphatically. “It is a social and collective act. The architect must think of themselves not as an artist, but as a participant in a living society.”  

This ethos is also reflected in the Doha-based segment of the exhibition, where the urbanism of Qatar is framed as humanist and collective. “Doha offers public parks, civic space, and an architecture of sociability,” Lemonier notes. “It’s not only about the buildings, it’s also about the empty spaces that allow a community to gather. It’s not about big gestures. It’s about how architecture allows a community to live, build with care, with humility, and with others in mind. For me, that’s the measure of success in design.” 

Anderson adds: “As architects, we hold a responsibility not just to build, but to shape how we gather, connect, and see one another. Architecture isn’t static. It’s one of the most dynamic ways we experience humanity. This exhibition explores how space can be a vessel for empathy — especially in a time when technology often divides us. Yasmeen Lari’s work may be rooted in (Pakistan’s province of) Sindh, but its message transcends borders: it asks us to reflect on what it truly means to design for people.” 

By placing Lari’s work in direct dialogue with the legacy of Hassan Fathy and by elevating regional voices too often overlooked, “Beyti Beytak” challenges dominant norms in global architecture. And it offers a compelling argument: Your home is not just yours — it belongs to the community, the climate, and the culture it serves. 

For the Arab world and the broader MENASA region, “Beyti Beytak” positions architects as custodians of culture and agents of justice.   

“This exhibition is not just about buildings,” says Lemonier. “It is about how we live together, how we welcome one another and how we shape a shared future through design.” 

-ENDS- 

  

 


Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ cast spotted in Bahrain 

Updated 29 May 2025
Follow

Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ cast spotted in Bahrain 

  • Production underway in Bahrain, set for release December 2026

DUBAI: Members of the star-studded “Avengers: Doomsday” cast were recently spotted in Bahrain, where production for the upcoming Marvel film is believed to be underway.

This week, Address Beach Resort held a dinner event attended by several cast members. Among the guests were director Joe Russo and actors Anthony Mackie, Simu Liu, Winston Duke, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta, Hannah John-Kamen, Danny Ramirez, and Alex Livinalli.

“This past weekend, Address Beach Resort Bahrain had the marvellous honour of hosting some of Hollywood’s most iconic stars,” the resort posted on Instagram.

Fans also spotted the cast dining at Sumosan, a Japanese restaurant located within the hotel.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, “Avengers: Doomsday” is set for release on Dec. 18, 2026.
 


Saudi Arabia’s first dedicated art storage depot launched in Jeddah 

Updated 29 May 2025
Follow

Saudi Arabia’s first dedicated art storage depot launched in Jeddah 

JEDDAH: Jeddah’s ATHR Gallery, in partnership with global arts logistics company Hasenkamp, launched The Art Storage by ATHR on May 24. 

The Art Storage — billed as Saudi Arabia’s first purpose-built, museum-grade art storage depot — integrates top-class security with exacting environmental control. The storage area is fully insulated and climate-regulated, maintaining a stable temperature of 20-22°C with precisely managed humidity levels. The entire system is also engineered to ensure maximum dust control, climate consistency, and discretion. Towering ceilings accommodate monumental works, while wide, retractable gates allow seamless movement of oversized pieces. To eliminate the risk of damage, all areas are fully insulated against rain and extreme weather conditions, ensuring the protection of artworks to international museum standards. 

Rana Alamuddin, director of marketing and communications at ATHR, told Arab News: “ATHR was born out of a desire to fill a gap in the Saudi art scene by providing aspiring and emerging artists with a platform to thrive locally and globally. This new facility is a continuation of that mission, reinforcing Jeddah as the heart of the gallery’s vision.” 

She added that the new facility will help reduce a long-standing gap in Saudi’s cultural ecosystem. “This level of preservation means artworks are protected not just for today, but for generations to come,” she said. 

Thomas Schneider, CEO of Hasenkamp, told Arab News at the opening: “I feel privileged to be part of the development of the cultural scene in Saudi Arabia. I came here for the first time over 11 years ago and the development is just mind-blowing in every aspect in the architectural and cultural scene. This is a booming country and it’s full of so many wonderful creative people.” 

Mohammed Hafiz, CEO of ATHR & co-founder of The Art Storage told Arab News that developing a “complete ecosystem” is essential for the Saudi art sector to grow. 

“A critical part of that ecosystem is safe, professional storage — because most artworks spend more time off-view than on display,” he said. “Proper storage ensures the preservation of priceless, irreplaceable pieces when they’re not in public view. It’s a meaningful contribution to the infrastructure of Saudi Arabia’s cultural future.” 


Authors, screenwriters sign letter calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’

Updated 28 May 2025
Follow

Authors, screenwriters sign letter calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’

DUBAI: Members of the literary community including Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Russell T Davies, Hanif Kureishi, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and George Monbiot are among 380 writers and organizations who have signed an open letter condemning Israel’s war on Gaza, describing it as genocidal and calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The letter, also signed by William Dalrymple, Jeanette Winterson, Brian Eno, Kate Mosse, Irvine Welsh and Elif Shafak, states: “The use of the words ‘genocide’ or ‘acts of genocide’ to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organizations.”

The writers are urging the UN to ensure the free and immediate delivery of food and medical supplies to Gaza, alongside a ceasefire “which guarantees safety and justice for all Palestinians, the release of all Israeli hostages, and the release of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners arbitrarily held in Israeli jails.” 

They add that if the Israeli government fails to comply with the demand for a ceasefire, sanctions should be enforced.

The letter, organized by writers Horatio Clare, Kapka Kassabova and Monique Roffey also says that Palestinians “are not the abstract victims of an abstract war. Too often, words have been used to justify the unjustifiable, deny the undeniable, defend the indefensible. Too often, too, the right words – the ones that mattered – have been eradicated, along with those who might have written them.”

The term “genocide” “is not a slogan,” it adds. “It carries legal, political and moral responsibilities.”