After Rain in Riyadh – Saudi Arabia’s Contemporary Art Biennale Breaks New Ground in 2024

I n December 2021 the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Saudi Arabia's first ever art biennale, launched in an industrial zone - JAX – just outside Riyadh. And amidst the angular, functional landscape, something unprecedented happened. A global squadron of local and international artists, 63 in total under the vision of curator Philip Tinari and his team created a compelling multimedia presentation entitled ‘Feeling The Stones’, reflecting on the Kingdom’s rapid metamorphosis into the region’s fastest-accelerating cultural powerhouse, comparing Saudi expansion to that of China’s transformation during the 1980s. Despite the organisational and curatorial acuity of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation and Tinari’s team respectively, it was a risk. Would local audiences, unaccustomed to home-grown contemporary art biennales, respond and engage with the event?

As it turned out, they did. Over 100,000 of them, in fact, a significant genuine public engagement, by any metric. And proving it was no fluke, last year’s inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale (set to alternate every other year with the art biennale) at a repurposed terminal in Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport was even more popular, welcoming over 300,000 visitors. Due to local demand was extended to 23 May, a month after the original end date.

Cut to February 2024. The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale returns to JAX between 20 February and 24 May, this time under the direction of renowned Singapore-based curator, Ute Meta Bauer. And this year’s three-month event is its most ambitious yet. The curatorial theme, ‘After Rain’, digs into the earth, gazes at the sky, and considers the natural environment, through the perspectives of 92 participating artists from across the Kingdom and around the world.

‘After Rain’ might seem ironic, given the biennale’s location, but participating artists have taken up the challenge responded to the curatorial brief with a hot mix of art in a multiplicity of media. And in the Art Lab and Research Room programming, talks, performances, workshops and presentations debate transformation, revitalization and renewal. And as with the Islamic Arts Biennale in 2023, Sotheby’s is supporting the event, presenting talks and screenings during the biennale's run.

At the time of writing, the JAX district is a last-minute bustle of construction chaos familiar to biennales worldwide - artworks are being assembled, installations are being installed and artists are busy arting. But speaking to me, mere weeks before launch on 20 February, the DBF’s CEO Aya Al Bakree is upbeat and happy to preview the shape and dimensions of what will be the most compelling presentation of contemporary art to take place in Riyadh to date.

How did the success of the inaugural 2021/2022 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale shape this 2024 Biennale’s planning? It went very well in terms of participating artists, audience numbers etc.
The first edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale made a clear statement of our ambition to nurture artistic expression in Saudi Arabia, and to engage local communities with the arts, more than ever before. At the time, the entire biennale model was a relatively new proposition in our country, and it offered a new way for audiences - particularly local ones - to learn, discover, and connect with new themes and artistic practices. Artists and creatives too, have found our biennales important platforms to connect and engage with each other – Ahmed Mater and Armin Linke’s collaborative exploration of futurism in this year’s edition is an example of that.

Our first edition drew over 100,000 visitors, most of whom came from Saudi Arabia - something that is especially noteworthy given that it took place just as pandemic-era restrictions were beginning to be eased. Our inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale [2023] in Jeddah too, was incredibly successful in drawing in local communities, with the vast majority of the 600,000 visitors we welcomed being Saudi Arabian.

This showed us that there is an engaged, curious audience eager to participate in cultural discourse and this lesson remained at the front of our minds whilst planning our upcoming contemporary art biennale. For this second edition in fact, we made sure it remains inextricably connected to our national context, and so it has been incredibly inspiring to me to witness curator Ute Meta Bauer’s incredible wealth of knowledge and experience. She travelled all over the Kingdom with her team to learn and open new conversations, learnings that were then interweaved into the essence of this edition.

Another lesson we took from our inaugural editions is the value of public programs. For this edition, we have designed rich and intensely educational masterclasses, workshops and specialised talks. These are intended to forge new opportunities for encounters and dialogues, offering audiences new ways to discover a diverse range of artistic practices. It’s an expansion of the work we began in December 2021 - and an important step in our ongoing journey.

How did the evolution of the 2024 Biennale happen over time, in terms of identifying Ute Meta Bauer as curator and developing the concept ‘After Rain’?
The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale exists to spark new perspectives - perspectives that come about from research and a strong connection to current global and local cultural discourse. Ute Meta Bauer has a wealth of experience working in a range of different contexts. Throughout her career, she has been interested in collaborative modes of working, as a curator and in collaboration, as a framework for artistic practice.

This approach, combined with her perspective working from Singapore, gave her a sensitive, nuanced view of the Saudi context; the histories of contemporary art here, and the importance of framing a transnational, cross-cultural narrative for the Biennale. Along with other members of the curatorial team, Ute conducted a series of research trips across Saudi Arabia to meet with artists and other creative practitioners whose work is rooted in highly specific places. This informed the curatorial framework of the Biennale and led to the selection of its title, After Rain. The title is meant to evoke a feeling of growth and renewal, specifically the particular smell that comes from the ground after a rain shower. In Saudi Arabia, where human life has always been closely tied to the natural surroundings, this feeling has special resonance. The title also refers to the exciting changes taking place in Saudi Arabia, which is in full evidence in Riyadh as well as in Diriyah. Working with an exceptional international team of curators, Ute has shaped an artistic direction for the Biennale that is inclusive, strongly multisensorial and multifaceted.

What aspects of the Biennale are you personally most looking forward to?
I don’t want to give away too much – I’d like your readers to come and visit! - but I will say that I am especially excited to see our local communities engage and connect with the range of international perspectives at this edition of the Biennale. We’re bringing artists from around the world to Diriyah, while also giving Saudi artists a platform with visibility. In its second edition, the Biennale has taken on an even wider resonance, that builds on the success of our inaugural exhibition two years ago. At its core, the Biennale is meant to create new connections and foster dialogue across contexts and cultures, so giving Saudi audiences a chance to experience art from around the world, as in, bringing art into their daily lives - is a highlight of our work, and something that I can’t wait to see continue to evolve.

Talking about the JAX district hosting the Biennale - what makes this area especially suited for the Biennale? How have works been integrated into the landscape?Underpinning our approach as a Foundation is the re-imagining and repurposing of urban spaces into venues for culture and creativity. JAX is a perfect example, as a former industrial space transformed into a home for creativity, it offers a remarkable context for us. It’s important that not only should the Biennale unfold in an existing space that has been adapted to a new use but also, unlike many other biennales, it should offer visitors an opportunity to explore a wider experience of Saudi creativity beyond the exhibition. So, the repurposing of JAX reflects the layers of history underpinning creative practices in Saudi Arabia today. Also, there are artist studios located alongside the Biennale’s exhibition galleries, adding to the district’s energy as a dynamic incubator.

Diriyah is also home to the UNESCO World Heritage site of At-Turaif, a former royal residence of the House of Saud and seat of the First Saudi State, and the Wadi Hanifa seasonal riverbed. JAX offers views of Diriyah, an eloquent statement of the growth of the birthplace of Saudi Arabia as a whole. In this wider setting, the Biennale’s site embodies a forward-looking transformation that remains rooted in the past, as well as in the natural environment.

There was a huge amount of interest locally during the Islamic Arts Biennale with record visitor numbers. Do you anticipate similar audiences for this event and how have you been interacting with the local community? And how do you contextualise and present works in unfamiliar forms or from foreign artists?
Since April 2023 we have been producing the ‘Biennale Encounters’ program, for this edition specifically, to connect members of the public with artists and other creative practitioners through talks, workshops, and other events. The program is specifically meant to engage with local audiences and invites them to explore the Biennale’s content and the ideas that will be on view. We have welcomed over three hundred participants so far, which speaks to the steps we have taken to create an inclusive environment where members of the community can feel close to the Biennale’s exhibition and activities. This is a Biennale for everyone - it is free of charge and designed to be friendly and accessible, and as such, we’ve designed talks, masterclasses, workshops and activities for people of all ages and backgrounds. The perspectives on view at the Biennale and in the accompanying public programs create a ‘safe space’ for audiences to learn, ask questions, interrogate the world around us and connect with each other.

What do you hope that this Biennale, which focuses on themes of nature, environment, will achieve in terms of highlighting ecological issues in the Kingdom?
The Biennale’s title and curatorial theme emphasise the connection we all have to the natural environment. We experience this connection on a deep, almost intuitive level through our five senses. By remaining sensitive to this relationship, we can ensure that the ecological issues of our time are always at the forefront of our thinking and actions.
Saudi Arabia is home to a range of different ecosystems, including the shores of the Red Sea, deserts, and river valleys. The variety of landscapes here has fostered different ways of living and different histories. Many of the Saudi artists included in the Biennale draw from their home environments to form distinct perspectives on the past, present, and future of our relationship with the natural world. If we consider these perspectives together and alongside visions of nature and human society from around the globe, as the Biennale invites us to do, we will be thinking in terms of ecology and sustainability in a range of contexts, no matter how small.

The Diryah Contemporary Art Biennale runs between 20 February - 24 May 2024. For more details and ticketing information visit the website here.