In 2023, Saudi Arabia will host the first Islamic Arts Biennale, organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation. The city of Jeddah has been chosen to host the exhibition.
The event was originally supposed to take place in Riyadh, but it was moved to Jeddah. According to the organizers, the wealth of historical sites in Jeddah, such as Bab Mecca, combined with the city’s diverse cultural heritage, ‘complements the Biennale’s goal of linking the past, present and future’.
In December 2021, Riyadh hosted the Feeling the Stones Contemporary Arts Biennale. That event became the largest and the most significant international exhibition of contemporary arts in the Kingdom. More than 60 renowned international artists participated then.
Both biennales are supervised by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation in cooperation with the Saudi Ministry of Culture.
‘The mission of the Foundation in creating the first Islamic Arts Biennale is to celebrate and enrich cultural exchange between Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, and communities around the world,’ the organizers said.
‘The event will promote innovations while supporting preservation of traditions. It will present explorations of spirituality in the aesthetic realm, in all its diversity of artistic expressions and forms. By inviting artists from all over the world, the exhibition gathers new ideas in the field of art’.
The upcoming event is supervised by prominent artists. This team includes Saudi scholar and archaeologist Saad Alrashed, Barakat Trust Research Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum Omnia Abdel Barr, Director of the National Museum of Asian Arts, the Smithsonian Institution Museum in Washington DC Julian Raby and co-founder of the Counterspace experimental architecture and research firm Sumaya Valli.
‘I have been to Jeddah many times as a pilgrim. Likewise my fellow supervisors, I am inspired by the opportunity to present my works in this unusual setting,’ Sumaya Valli, one of the supervisors of the upcoming biennale, said.
‘Cultural exchange is essential at this time of unprecedented growth and development of Saudi Arabia’s creative community,’ Prince Badr bin Farhan Al Saud, Saudi Arabian Minister of Culture, noted. ‘The Diriyah Biennale Foundation is at the forefront of this cultural awakening and flourishing of arts. Our first contemporary arts event has been universally acclaimed, and organizing the Islamic Arts Biennale is sure to be the Foundation’s next successful step’.
Aya Al-Bakri, Executive Director of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, said that the Islamic Arts Biennale would help viewers learn about Islamic culture and its heritage in arts.
‘I am honored to announce our Islamic Arts Biennale, the first of its kind,’ she stressed. ‘Our exhibition on Islamic arts will again work with leading practitioners and supervisors in order to present a contextual exhibition of artworks and installations selected by theme. This will enable a wide audience to learn more about Islamic civilization and its heritage’.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Creative Commons