RIYADH: The travelling exhibition of Saudi contemporary art, “Art of the Kingdom: Poetic Illuminations,” will open at the Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art on Feb. 24 following its successful debut in Rio de Janeiro, where it had more than 26,000 visitors. The show includes works by 17 prominent Saudi artists.
Curator Diana Wechsler told Arab News: “Few people know what is happening in the artistic field in Saudi Arabia. Information circulates — everywhere and about any topic — in a very fragmented way and this affects the image that people have of a country or a society.”
Detail from Sarah Abuabdallah's and Ghada Al Hassan's 'Horizontal Dimensions.' (Supplied)
The show’s Rio debut, she said, was a great success. “Why? Because it opened up views and perspectives, it surprised colleagues, specialists in art history and contemporary art, as well as surprising and greatly interesting the general public. It must also be said that the artists and works of art selected are very interesting and powerful and, at the same time, quite different from other contemporary proposals.”
Wechsler carried out exhaustive research when selecting the featured artists. She visited workshops, conducted interviews, and explored the artists’ cultural references.
Works from 'The Art of the Kingdom - Poetic Illuminations' in Rio de Janeiro last year. (Supplied)
“From this research emerged the concept of ‘poetic illuminations,’ which shows how art is capable of participating in a cultural tradition and, at the same time, forms part of the present,” she said. “The exhibition — and, in particular, the selected artists — are part of the process and continuity of a dynamic construction of cultural identity, with a great commitment to their roots and, at the same time, with an interesting contemporary perspective.”
There are certain elements of Saudi culture that run through the exhibition. Perhaps the most powerful, Wechsler suggested, is the image of the desert, which “appears in different ways in practically all the selected artists’ works.”
Another theme is the tension between the past and the present. “The imagination of the future is found in these artists,” Wechsler said. “This is one of the most fascinating aspects offered to me by the exploration of the Saudi artistic and cultural (scene).”
The Riyadh exhibition will feature newly created site-specific works as well as some pieces from the Ministry of Culture’s collection. Its main challenge is to adapt to the local public, who will have a better understanding of the culture explored by the artists.
“In Rio the challenge was to show how Saudi Arabia manages its cultural processes and how artists work between different pasts and presents. In Riyadh, the situation is different,” said Wechsler. “The challenge is to capture the attention of the public and reflect on their cultural traditions from a current perspective. I think this is one of the objectives of contemporary art in general.”
Muhannad Shono's 'The Ground Day Breaks.' (Supplied)
As Saudi artists continue to face new frontiers, through this exhibition and their growing prominence in the global art sphere, it is necessary, Wechsler believes, “to be attentive to the experiences of contemporary life, to be able to contribute their perspective to point out invisible aspects, to highlight imaginary dimensions which, as we know, are often those that allow us to think about the present from a new perspective.”
The Riyadh show will run until April 25 before the exhibition makes its way to the National Museum in China, marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Saudi-Chinese diplomatic relations.
